Kerala: Five Islamic State suspects remanded to police custody for 15 days

KANNUR: The sessions court, Thalassery, on Tuesday granted the police plea for 15-day custody of the five accused with suspected IS links for further interrogation and investigation. They were in judicial custody from Thursday. When the accused demanded facilities to read religious texts, the court directed the prison officials to give a text from the prison library. Those arrested were U.K. Hamza, 57, Thoufeeq house, Muzhuppilangad, Manaf Rehman, 42, Sainasil house, near Thalassery court, K.C. Midhilaj, 26, Kaippakkayil house, Munderi, K.V. Abdul Rasaq, 24, Pandaravalappil house, Mayyil, and M.V. Rashid, 23, MV House, Munderi.

The police are planning a detailed interrogation of the accused in the presence of experts and also take evidence from wherever the group had gathered. The duo Manaf and Hamza were allegedly recruiting people into the IS terror network for the last many months. The other three were arrested after months of surveillance and tracking their mobile phones which helped the police to establish the links between all the five and with the terror networks. They were caught by Turkey police while trying to cross the border to Syria and deported to New Delhi months back.