Two men were arrested in Kannur on Thursday over suspected links with the Islamic State (IS).
Hamza and Manaf, from Thalassery in Kannur district, were arrested a day after the police arrested three other suspected IS operatives.
The police said Hamza was involved in the recruitment of operatives for the terrorist outfit. Kannur DySP P P Sadanandan said Hamza had worked in the Gulf for about 20 years.
“Manaf who was preparing to leave the country for Syria was earlier stopped at the Mangaluru Airport and sent back,” Sadanandan told reporters.
The Valapattanam Police had on Wednesday arrested three men – Rashid M V, Abdul Razzaq and Mithilaj K C – following a period of surveillance.
The police said the men were stationed in Turkey and were trying to enter Syria when they were intercepted by the Turkish authorities and deported to India.
They had lived in Istanbul for four months. The three men were booked under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.
The arrest of five men in Kannur over two days also assumes significance considering that it comes a year after the National Investigation Agency (NIA) arrested from the district six men who were involved in the Omar Al-Hindi IS module.
The NIA charge sheets in the case said the accused had plans to collect explosives to target “prominent people and places of public importance” in south India.
Published 26 October 2017, 08:25 IST