
The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has registered a case against five men from Kannur in Kerala for allegedly being members of the Islamic State (IS). The men had gone missing from Kannur between 2015 and 2017 and are suspected to be in Syria. In October, the Kerala Police had booked the five — Midhilaj (26), Abdul Rasak (34), M V Rashid (24), Manaf Rahman (42) and U K Hamsa (57). The central probe agency said it has taken over the case from the Kerala Police.
The NIA case against the five was registered under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) for “being members of the proscribed terrorist organisation, Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS)/Daesh, and for supporting the organisation by travelling out of India to join the terrorist organisation in Syria and fight on its behalf”.
Some of the accused, NIA sources said, had been activists of the Popular Front of India. According to them, one of the suspects used fake passport to move out of India while one of them is suspected to have died fighting. Abdul Manaf Rahman, from Valapattanam in Kannur, allegedly went to Syria on a fake passport. Manaf allegedly had close links with Valluva Kandy Shajahan, who was arrested by Delhi Police in July after his deportation from Turkey. U K Hamsa is suspected to be behind prompting the youths from Kannur to move to Syria. Hamsa, who lived in Bahrain for two decades, had close links with IS ideologue Abu Thurki, according to police.
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