Intelligence agencies have reportedly spotted the religious centre in Sri Lanka, where the missing youths of Kerala are suspected to have stayed before they disappeared.  

“It is a centre run by one Nawaz ul-Hind who has connections with Kerala. He had studied at Darul Hadees at Dammaj in Yemen for 12 years before starting the centre at Nigombo in Sri Lanka,“ an intelligence officer told The Times of India.

The report says Nawaz studied under Yasin Hajoori, the head of Darul Hadees in Dammaj, and he left Yemen after the centre was closed down following an attack.

Nawaz’s mother is reportedly from Thrissur and he used to conduct classes in some Salafi centres in north Kerala. Agencies got the information about this Sri Lankan institute from the Salafi centre at Athikkad in Malappuram. There were earlier reports that the missing youths had stayed in Athikkad also.

The ToI report further says that Nawaz had expelled Hafeesudheen - one of the missing youths hailing from Kasaragod - from the institute after the latter tried to lure some students into the Islamic State (IS). Hafeesudheen was the one who had sent messages to their parents informing that they had reached an Islamic country having Shariya rule.

Other members of the group, including Ashfaq, Rashid, Ezza and his wife from Palakkad, Eshia and his wife from Ernakulam, have also reportedly gone to the Sri Lankan centre, as per the statements of their parents.