Kerala Police release details of five IS recruits believed to 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, belonged to north Kerala and had gone missing from their workplace in the Middle East two years ago. The information was acquired through the interrogation of Hamza Thalasserry, the Islamic State recruiter taken into custody.

The missing people have been identified as Abdul Gayoom, Abdul Manaf, Muhamed Shabeer, Suhail and Saffan. While Gayoom hails from Thechikulam and Saffan from Pappinasserry, the remaining three are residents of Valapattanam in Kannur district.

“We have information that these youth are currently operating in trouble-torn areas of Syria. Hamza identified some of them during interrogation. However, we are yet to understand how they reached Syria, and who funded them,” said Kannur deputy superintendent of police PP Sadanandan.

The recent arrest of five deportees from Turkey has reaffirmed 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 members of the Islamic State. He has reportedly confessed to having sent at least 40 youngsters to Syria, Yemen and Afghanistan – and 15 of them are now dead.

Hamza said his funders were based in Saudi Arabia and Oman.

At least 18 lakh people from Kerala are working in various Gulf countries. Last week, police released photographs of five persons who were reportedly killed in Syria.