Since 2016, Islamic State (IS or ISIS) recruits in Afghanistan had been using messaging apps to communicate with their families in Kerala. Then, about five months ago, the messages stopped. The silence of over 100 such recruits about 30 of whom were from Kerala coincided with a massive assault on ISIS positions by US and Afghan forces.

On November 19, Shahmahmood Miakhel, governor of Nangarhar province in Afghanistan, on the border with Pakistan, announced the surrender of 243 ISIS fighters with around 400 family members. This followed offensives against the militant group’s strongholds in Kunar and Nangarhar provinces. Since October 20, government forces had maintained a regular bombardment of ISIS strongholds in these areas, as well as cutting off food supplies, leaving the militants a stark choice surrender or starvation. The governor estimated that about a third of the surrendering fighters were from Pakistan and India and said they would be taken to Kabul for interrogation.

Indian intelligence officials say that a majority of Keralites who had joined the Islamic State were in Nangarhar and Kunar provinces. We have been keeping tabs on their families and monitoring their communications, a senior police official from the intelligence wing told India Today. We are awaiting the Union home ministry’s response [to these developments].

Many ISIS recruits from Kerala have met with grim fates. For instance, three are believed to have been killed in the US bombing campaign in Afghanistan between June and August this year. Muhammed Muhsin, a 21-year-old engineering student from Changaramkulam in Malappuram was killed on June 18, with his death confirmed by intelligence agencies. Similarly, Saifudeen Kunjahmed from Tirurangadi in Malappuram, was killed in the second week of July. A third recruit, from Kannur, is believed to have been killed in August, but his death has not been confirmed. Intelligence officials say the surviving fighters were anxious to escape. [Our sources say] they were desperate to get out of the war zone and were trapped in the mountains, the official revealed.

The Islamic State’s Khorasan province’ a region including parts of Afghanistan, Pakistan and India was established in Nangarhar and Kunar provinces in late 2014. Its leadership included former Tehreek-e-Taliban and Afghan Taliban cadres. A UN report recently estimated that around 2,500 to 4,000 ISIS fighters were operating in this area.

Since May 2016, around 98 people have migrated from Kerala with their families to join the Islamic State in Nangarhar province. Over the past three years, around seven have been killed in airstrikes. Rashid Abdulla, who led a 21-member team from Kerala to Afghanistan, was killed in US airstrikes in May, while Shajeer Mangalassery Abdulla, an engineering graduate from NIT Kozhikode, was killed in June 2017. Rashid and Shajeer were both instrumental in radicalising Keralites through an IS module in the state. Worryingly, however, Kerala’s ISIS migration has continued. Last year alone, around 20 Keralites joined ISIS affiliates in Yemen. This has continued despite Kerala’s state intelligence agencies conducting aggressive counter-radicalisation programmes. For instance, on August 8, state chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan convened and addressed a meeting of Muslim organisations and religious groups. However, two radical organisations the SDPI and Popular Front of India were notably absent.

According to officials from Afghanistan’s ministry of defence, after interrogations, non-Afghan ISIS recruits and family members captured from such areas are sent back to their home countries. This is one return of expatriates Kerala will be deeply uncomfortable about.