POLICE RELEASE DETAILS OF 5 IS ‘RECRUITS’ WHO MAY BE IN SYRIA

A week after Kerala police arrested five people, including an alleged key recruiter for the Islamic State, they have released details of five others believed to be fighting for the terror group in Syria.

Police said all the suspects, aged between 25 and 32 years, belongedtonorthKeralaandhad gone missing from their workplaceintheMiddleEasttwoyears ago. The information was acquired through the interrogationofHamzaThalasserry,theIS ‘recruiter’ taken into custody. The missing people have been identified as Abdul Gayoom, Abdul Manaf, Muhamed Shabeer, Suhail and Saffan. While GayoomhailsfromThechikulam and Saffan from Pappinasserry, theremainingthreeareresidents of Valapattanam in Kannur.

“We have information that theseyoutharecurrentlyoperatingintrouble-tornareasofSyria. Hamza identified some of them during interrogation. However, we are yet to understand how they reached Syria, and who funded them,” said Kannur deputy SP PP Sadanandan.

The recent arrest of five deportees from Turkey hasreaffirmed the Kerala police’s suspicion that several people — numbering between 100 and 150 — employed in west Asian countries have joined the Islamic State. However, no mechanism exists to monitor their movements abroad. Police said 52-year-old Hamza (also known as ‘Hamsa Taliban’) allegedly enjoys close links with senior membersoftheIslamicState.He has reportedly confessed to having sent at least 40 youngsters to Syria,YemenandAfghanistan– and 15 of them are now dead.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM:

The third Thor film (after Thor, 2011; and Thor: The Dark World, 2013) is a rousing example of how to refresh a comic-book franchise.

New Zealand director

Taika Waititi (Hunt for the Wilderpeople) provides a fun new spin on the superhero adventure, with the titular warrior (Chris Hemsworth, reprising his signature role) rendered practically helpless when his battle hammer is smashed by a self-proclaimed goddess of death (two-time Oscar winner Cate Blanchett).

Playing Thor’s disgruntled sister, Blanchett brings us — with typical dramatic flair — the first leading female villain in Marvel’s cinematic universe.

Thor, meanwhile, finds himself faced with the destruction of his realm, hurled through an intergalactic portal and held captive on an alien planet. He is also forced to fight in a gladiatorial arena, against his former ally