25 worshippers belonging to Afghanistan’s minority Sikh community were killed when three IS terrorists including Muhsin attacked the gurdwara. (Photo: PTI)

Kabul gurdwara attacker Mohammed Muhsin, 29, was an active member of the radical Islamic outfit Popular Front of India (PFI) and left for Dubai after being accused in a case of pelting stones at a local temple, Kerala police sources told India Today.

Muhsin’s family, who live in Payyannur in Kannur district of Kerala, were contacted by police and informed of his role in the Gurdwara Har Rai Sahib attack on Wednesday.

Twenty five worshippers belonging to Afghanistan’s minority Sikh community were killed when three Islamic State (IS) terrorists including Muhsin attacked the gurdwara. All three attackers were killed after a six-hour gunbattle with security forces.

Police identified Muhsin from a photograph and video put out by IS on Friday identifying the attacker as Abu Khalid al-Hindi’. The identities of the two other attackers were not disclosed.

We are in utter shock. We didn’t know where he was for the last two years. We knew he joined ISIS only police informed us yesterday. His mother has not eaten since yesterday and his father is also so depressed, Muhsin's brother-in-law Mohammed Mashood told India Today.

A senior state police official said that Muhsin was a Class 9 dropout (not an engineering student as stated earlier) and an active member of Popular Front of India (PFI).

He was an introvert and deeply religious and his path to radicalisation began after he joined the Islamic fundamentalist group. He was involved in several police cases including one of throwing stones at a local temple for which he was charged with triggering communal disharmony in the area in 2018.

The exact details of what transpired are not known, but it was after this incident that Muhsin left for Dubai from where he possibly migrated to the IS camps in eastern Afghanistan.

His father Abdullah Njangarath earlier worked in Malaysia and now runs a furniture business. The family are natives of Thrikkaripur in Kasaragod, the state’s northern-most district. They lived in Muhsin’s maternal home in Vadakkekovil village under Chandera police station in Kasaragod district.

Last year, his father Abdulla shifted to Karamil village, near Payyannur in Kannur district. Abdullah and his wife Mymoona have four children including Muhsin. Muhsin’s younger brother who was working in Malaysia returned home recently.