Kochi: Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan disclosed at a press meeting that out of 100 Malayalis who joined the terror outfit ISIS from Kerala till 2019, were 94 Muslims. Speaking on the recruitment of ISIS terrorists, Vijayan said, "The government has confirmed the facts that out of 100 Malayali people who joined the ISIS, 72 had gone abroad for professional purposes, but were attracted by the ideology of the ISIS and joined the terror outfit. Out of these 72 people, only one was a Hindu, while the others were from the Muslim community.''

Vijayan further said, "The other 28 people had left Kerala to join the ISIS in particular after being influenced by the ideology of the terror outfit. Only five out of 28 were converted to Islam from other religions. It may be recalled that several media reports in 2019 quoted security agencies as well as information and photographs of the people of Kerala who had joined ISIS.'' At the same conference, CM Vijayan slammed Pala Bishop for "harming the secular fabric of the state" terming the ongoing organized controversy around 'Love Jihad' and 'Narcotics Jihad' as baseless.

At the same time, to dismiss the allegations levelled by the bishop on 'narcotics jihad,' CM Vijayan cited government statistics on drugs claiming that there was no connection between drug trafficking and religion. CM Pinarayi Vijayan said, "Under the Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act (NDPS) 1985 Act in 2020, 4,941 cases were registered in Kerala. Out of 5,422 accused in these cases, 2700 (49.80 per cent) were Hindus, 1869 (34.47 per cent) were Muslims, while 853 (15.73 per cent) were Christians.''

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