Padne, a secular island till recently, is bewildered by the flight of some of its Muslim youth.It is sandwiched between the politically volatile Kannur and a communally sensitive Kasargod , but Padne village doesn’t share the characteristics of either district. The Muslim-dominated area was tension-free even in the dark days following the demolition of Babri Masjid when neighbouring areas witnessed violence.Last week, Padne woke up one morning to find that 12 people from the village had disappeared and been possibly radicalised by the ISIS . Among the 12 missing are a doctor, a dentist, two engineers, a commerce graduate and two two-year olds. And two of the women in the group are pregnant.One family got a chilling message: “We have reached the final destination — the Caliphate where there is no danger of mixing with the non-believers.” The tone and the language seemed to have the unmistakable IS stamp.“We had no inkling that educated youth would go on such a misadventure,” says BC Abdurehman, the local leader of the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) and a relative of 23-year-old Hafeesudheen, one of those missing.“People from Padne have gone out of the state on jobs and businesses — Rangoon (Yangon), Singapore, the Gulf countries, Mumbai and Mangalore. Padne has a considerable number of NRIs and the relatives of some of the boys run prosperous businesses in the Gulf,” says Abdurehman. “But we couldn’t imagine something like this even in our worst nightmares.”Most of Padne’s Muslims follow the Sufi or Sunni path that gels easily with local traditions. “But educated young Muslims found the local Sunni imams naïve because they had no answer to their doubts about Islam. So they turned to the Salafi preachers who sounded more appealing. This is how Salafism gained ground in Padne,” says Abdurehman.But of late, the influence of ultra-Salafism was becoming evident in the youth of the area. “As an adolescent, Hafeesudheen had all the problems typical of a kid born in an affluent Dubai-based family. He was sent back to Kerala to be ‘reformed’. But the changes that occurred in him in the past few years were unimaginable. He professed hatred for everything he once loved in his childhood, like movies and desert safaris,” says Abdul Salam, Hafeesudheen’s uncle.CPM district secretariat member VPP Musthafa is at a loss to understand the disappearance. “In hindsight, we overlooked many things connected to this change,” he says.“We failed to notice the radicalisation because they never debated political or social issues. Earlier incarnations of Muslim extremism such as Abdul Nazer Madani’s PDP or the Popular Front of India were very vocal about their stance. But this group seemed unconcerned about the issues that generally fuel extremism,” says the CPM leader.But the missing youngsters did argue with their family members about religious issues. Hafeesudheen had insisted that his wedding be held in a different style despite his father’s objections. Interestingly, though the other men had succeeded in indoctrinating their wives as well, Hafeesudheen’s wife, a PharmD, stayed back.Muslim leaders in Padne are worried the developments will damage the village’s secular credentials. But the area’s Hindus say they are not worried. “Sree Padne Mundya Temple is situated right in the middle of a Muslim area. They (Muslims) even take part in the temple festival held once every three years. There are only around 40 Hindu families around here, the rest are Muslim,” says K V Balakrishnan, former president of the temple committee.“We don’t think Muslims in Padne have changed. What happened is only an aberration. The radicalized youth don’t seem to have any local grievances. So this could have happened anywhere in Kerala but unfortunately Padne became the theatre of action,” he says.