Interrogations of five men with suspected links to the Islamic State arrested in Kerala’s Kannur district have revealed that the terror outfit may also be spreading its links into Karnataka’s Kodagu district.
According to Kannur DySP Sadanandan, two of the suspects – UK Hamsa and Manaf Rahman – have revealed that the ISIS is recruiting people in Kodagu through social media.
Hamsa, who is also known as Taliban Hamsa and Biriyani Hamsa, and Manaf were detained in Kannur on Thursday. A day earlier, three others identified by the police as Mithilaj KC (26), Abdul Razak KV (24), and Rasheed MV (27) had been arrested.
According to Sadanandan, Manaf Rahman was under the National Investigative Agency’s surveillance since he was sent back from the Mangaluru airport six months ago. “Manaf, at the time was trying to make his way to Syria to join the Islamic State. It was Hamsa who lured Manaf into joining the IS”, the DySP said.
“In 1988, Hamsa travelled to several countries in the Gulf using a fake passport. He returned to India 20 years later and was arrested at the airport in Santa Cruz in Mumbai. He did some time in the prison in Andheri,” he added.
Sadanandan said that their investigations had revealed that Manaf was acting as the link for ISIS recruitments in Karnataka. “Hamsa was the kingpin in recruiting people and that is how he met Manaf. Manaf had ties in Karnataka. It is suspected that he helped in recruiting people there.”
The revelations regarding ISIS links in Karnataka come two days after the Kannur police confirmed the death of another five men in Syria, all from Kannur. Officials had said that a total of 15 people from Kannur have joined the Islamic State in Syria so far, and it was Hamsa who had persuaded them to join the terror network.