Kerala police register case against IS suspect

The Kerala police have registered a case against Riyab-ul-Rehman, a youth from Payyanakkal in Kozhikode on the charge of joining the Islamic State (IS) and trying to recruit people to the banned militia operating in Syria and Iraq.

Intelligence agencies say that Rehman had left for Syria from the UAE about six months ago. The 24-year-old IS suspect is the son of a textile businessman, who too was deported from the UAE on Tuesday. The entire family had been in Ras-al-Khaimah, one of the seven emirates in the UAE, for the past 41 years.

Additional Director General of Police (North Zone) N. Shankar Reddy, told

The Hindu on Wednesday that the case was registered under Section 125 (waging war against an Asiatic Power that is in alliance with the government of India) of the Indian Penal Code and Section 18 (punishment for recruiting any person or persons for terrorist act) of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act.

Intelligence sources said that Rehman had left home after he had fallen out with his father over his radical ideology. His name had figured in the radar of security agencies after the detention of Indian Mujahideen (IM) sympathisers in Saudi Arabia.

The case of two missing Keralites from the UAE and Qatar a few months ago had increased the suspicion that radicalised Kerala youths were joining the IS militants.

Security agencies had traced the identity of Abu Thahir, who had left his home Palakkad for Qatar two years ago. But the Indian consulate in Qatar has no clue if he has reached the emirate.