THREE HELD IN KERALA FOR ‘LINKS’ WITH ISLAMIC STATE

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Police arrested three men in Kerala for their suspected links with terrorist group Islamic State, after an intelligence report said the trio returned home when they failed to enter Syria through Turkey.

The cops anticipate more people from the coastal state to return as the Islamic State’s so-called caliphate is crumbling under sustained military assaults and the group’s base in Syria and Iraq has shrunk.

“Since the situation in IS-controlled areas is bleak, we expect more such returns. We have alerted the immigration wing and other agencies,” an officer said. The trio belongs to the state’s northern district of Kannur. Their identity and details such as when they went to join the Islamic State weren’t revealed.

Kannur police deputy superintendent PP Sadanandan said on Wednesday the trio went to Turkey from neighbouring Asian countries and returned after their attempts to enter Syria failed. “They said they were detained by Turkish police … and sent back to the countries from where they went,” he said.

The men allegedly stayed some months in the Saudi peninsula, which has a 1.8-million Kerala expat population, before returning home.

“Their passports show they travelled to Turkey. They told us five of them travelled together. Attempts are being made to capture the other two,” officer Sadanandan said.

The arrests reaffirm Kerala police’s suspicion that many people working in the west Asian countries might have joined the Islamic State and gone to fight in the war-ravaged region. Their concerns compounded as there’s no mechanism to check these people’s travels abroad.

Intelligence agencies, too, had warned that young Indians working in these countries were prime targets of headhunters working for the terrorist group.