The Kerala youths who were believed to be recruited by the Islamic State and reportedly killed while fighting in Syria were members of an extreme Salafi group in Bahrain before they joined the terror outfit.
The Salafi preachers from Kerala, one from Mankada in Malappuram and the other from Perumbavoor in Ernakulam, were instrumental in radicalising the youth, reports Prashanth MP of Times of India.
The Salafi preachers had organised classes at a religious centre in Bahrain and at other places where they injected the extreme Salafism in the youth, the TOI report says.
A few of the members of the group were working with a catering company in Bahrain.
The preachers are members of a splinter group among the Kerala Salafis and have no connection with any of the established Salafi organisations in the state, the reports says quoting sources.
Twenty-one people, including six women and children, had left Kerala to join terror outfits in May 2016.
The number of Malayalis who joined the terror outfit could be much higher that what has been officially estimated and ISIS is suspected to have reported more Malayalis working in the Gulf countries, the report states.
At least ten people who went to fight for the ISIS in Syria and Afghanistan have been killed, according to reports.
In a span of four months, five Keralites who had gone missing from the Gulf countries to join ISIS last year were reportedly killed.
Most of the youth contacted Salafi scholars from Kerala, who went to Bahrain at different times, after getting attracted to the extreme Salafism.
Some of the Salafi groups are indirectly propagating the ideology of the Islamic State. But in the open, they severely criticise the activities of Islamic State, says the report.