According to classified information seized after busting an IS Module in 2016, the agencies have come to know of the plans to target Jews in south India. (Photo: PTI file)
Authorities have taken serious note of a protest march in solidarity with Palestine held by a Muslim organisation on October 13 after the Friday prayers near the historic Synagogue at Mala in Thrissur district
Central agencies and Kerala Police are keeping a keen eye and have beefed up security around the historic monuments of the Jewish community in the state following the attack of Palestine-based terror group Hamas in Israel.
Authorities have taken serious note of a protest march in solidarity with Palestine held by a Muslim organisation on October 13 after the Friday prayers near the historic Synagogue at Mala in Thrissur district.
According to highly placed sources in security agencies, they are maintaining a strict vigil mainly for three reasons. According to classified information seized after busting an IS Module in 2016, the agencies have come to know of the plans to target Jews in south India.
The National Investigation Agency (NIA) court in Kochi had taken this information into consideration while sentencing six people who were arrested in connection with an Islamic State (IS) terror plot and were guilty of conspiring to carry out terror strikes in Kerala and neighbouring states. The NIA had nabbed some of them when they arrived at Kanakamala in Kannur for a secret meeting on October 2, 2016.
The NIA probe established that the accused had intentionally conspired and conducted preparations to attack foreigners, especially Jews visiting Kodaikanal in Tamil Nadu, prominent political leaders, high court judges, senior policemen, rationalists and Muslims belonging to the Ahmadiyya sect.
Then the arrest of a Thrissur native from Tamil Nadu in September 2023, points to the fact that the IS Module is still active in South India. According to National Investigative Agency, the Thrissur-based IS module had allegedly been conspiring to commit terror acts in Kerala.
Siyed Nabeel Ahammed, allegedly the Ameer (leader) of the Thrissur-based IS Module was the third accused to be arrested since July in the case relating to IS activities in Kerala. In July this year, NIA tracked and arrested one Ashif alias Mathilakath Kodayil Ashraf from his hideout near Sathyamangalam, Tamil Nadu. Incriminating documents and digital devices have been seized from the possession of Ahammed.
To add these, the agencies observe the protest march around the Historic Synagogue in Mala in Thrissur as of a grave nature. Though the Mala Synagogue owned and managed by the local Grama Panchayat does not have any religious material inside it is one of the oldest extant synagogues in India and was built by the historic Malabar Jews of Kerala.
During 1954–1955 due to the Aliyah (migration)of the Malabar Jewish community from Kerala to Israel, the community had handed over both the Mala Synagogue and the associated Cemetery to the Mala Panchayat for safekeeping.
“Though their number may be minuscule, the strategic importance is paramount. So we can’t take a chance and provide top priority to the security of the community members as well as the monuments,” a senior officer told News18.
With a history of more than 450 years, the Paradesi Synagogue or the Mattancherry synagogue in Ernakulam is one of the oldest active Jewish places of worship within the Commonwealth Nations. Constructed in 1567, it is one of the seven synagogues of the Cochin Jewish community in the erstwhile Kingdom of Cochin and it is the only one which is in operation for religious purposes.
Currently, out of the few members of the Jewish community in the state, only two members reside in Mattancherry, which is known as Jew Town in Kerala.
Most of the Jews in Kerala, once a prosperous trading community in Kerala, when they controlled a major portion of the spice trade, went to Israel to settle there once the country was formed in 1948.
When contacted, the Jewish community members refused to comment on the developments citing security reasons.
Source: News18