Officials from the National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Sunday took into custody five persons with suspected ISIS connection from Kanakamala near Panur in the northern Kerala district of Kannur.
The NIA team led by an Inspector General took the five persons, whose identities were yet to be revealed, into custody on Sunday afternoon in a raid that had started in the forest area at Kanakamala before noon. The local police had no prior information on the details of the raid though they gave cover to the operation as per the NIA officials’ request.
The NIA raid at Kanakamala and the detention of the five men assumed significance with regard to security in the context of the mysterious disappearance of 22 persons including six women from Kasaragod and Palakkad districts, who are feared to have joined the ISIS in the terror group’s camps in Afghanistan.
The NIA officials had reached Kanakamala by tracking the mobile signals of those detained, who had been under the agency’s surveillance for the past several months as per information reportedly received from Andhra Pradesh a few months ago. It is said that these persons had been publicising pro-ISIS ideas through the social media.
According to sources, eight persons had assembled at Kanakamala allegedly for a meeting but three had managed to escape. The group had reportedly arrived at Kanakamala from Vadakara in Kozhikode district and two of them were said to be Keralites working in Tamil Nadu. The NIA officials later took them to an undisclosed location for interrogation.
The agency which had been looking into the disappearance of the young men, some with their families, from Kasaragod and Palakkad had received information about the presence in northern Kerala of a group of persons following ISIS ideas. As per reports, the young men had assembled at Kanakamala, a relatively obscure place, with the plan to make it a training ground.
The raid had attracted hundreds of local people to Kanakamala and they gave a tough time to the officials and police with the demand for information on those detained. According to Intelligence agencies, Kerala is a fertile soil for the growth of extremist groups and there were reports about a plan for the formation of a committee of an extremist outfit in Ernakulam district.