The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Sunday raided the houses of three suspects in Kasargod, for suspected links of the residents with IS operatives involved in the Sri Lankan blasts.
The probe agency said in a statement issued in Delhi that it carried out the searches at two houses in Kasaragod and one in Palakkad.
“These persons are suspected to have links with some of the accused persons in the said case who had exited India to join the proscribed terrorist organisation ISIS/Daish,” the NIA said in a statement.
It said that mobile phones, SIM cards, memory cards, pen drives, diaries with handwritten notes in Arabic and Malayalam, DVDs and books of controversial Islamic preacher Zakir Naik, besides untitled DVDs, CDs with religious speeches, books of Syed Kutheb were seized during the searches.
“Digital devices will be forensically examined and analysed,” the agency said, adding the three suspects are being questioned.
According to local sources in Kerala, the houses of Aboobacker Sidiqque of Nayanmarmoola and Ahammed Arafat at Kaliangad were raided.
They were said to be members of a social media group in which the IS operatives involved in the Sri Lankan Easter day serial blast were present.
Police sources said that no direct links of any IS sympathisers in Kerala with the Sri Lankan terror strike were not yet known.
However, many IS sympathisers in Kerala were members of social media groups in which IS cadres suspected to be involved in the Sri Lankan blast were also involved.
It can be recalled that the Malayalam version of IS message claiming responsibility over the Sri Lankan blast was widely circulated in many groups in Kerala.
It is to be noted that Kerala has been in news for IS operations with several youths, including women, reportedly joining IS, and the death of five such youths confirmed by the NIA.
