Raids in Kerala over ISIS links, three suspects questioned

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Sunday searched the houses of at least four people in north Kerala as part of the international probe into the Easter Day suicide bombings in Sri Lanka.

“These persons are suspected to have links with some of the accused in the ISIS Kasaragod module who had exited India to join ISIS,” an NIA statement said.

The searches were conducted at the houses of three suspects — two in Kasargod and one in Palakkad. The three suspects are being questioned by the probe agency.

“Handwritten notes in Arabic and Malayalam, DVDs of Zakir Naik and Syed Kutheb have been seized. The digital devices will be forensically examined and analysed,” the statement added.

According to officials, the NIA had not booked anyone, possibly due to lack of proof of complicity in the attacks.

According to officials, the NIA appeared to be investigating whether there was any correlation between the attacks in Sri Lanka and radical activity in mainland India.

The NIA’s investigations into the alleged affiliates of the now notorious National Towheeth Jamaat (NTJ), a construct of Hashim to unleash terror in mainland India, were still at a nascent stage, the officials said.

Intelligence agencies have found that Hashim had travelled to both Tamil Nadu and Kerala in the past couple of years. The NIA had raided seven locations and arrested six for suspected links with the IS, including R Ashiq, Ismail, Salavuddin, Jafar Sadiq Ali, Shahul Hameed, Shamsuddin.

The NIA is probing cases of disappearance of at least 22 people who had left Kerala under mysterious circumstances over a period of time and are suspected to have joined ISIS.

The 22 included 13 men, six women and three children. They left India from Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Mumbai airports for Kuwait, Dubai, Muscat or Abu Dhabi, from where they are learnt to have travelled to Afghanistan through Iran.