Daijiworld Media Network - Mangaluru (SP)
Mangaluru, Dec 26: A native of Thalassery in Kerala was taken into custody from the airport here on Friday December 23 on the basis of suspicions that he had 'links with ISIS', and released two days later after officials failed to find any evidence to support their suspicions. His passport, however, was impounded.
The man, identified as Munaf Rahman (41) has been conducting trade in the city since sometime. NIA had got information that Munaf was leaving the city along with family to 'join ISIS'.
Munaf had arrived at the airport for flying to a Gulf country along with wife and children on Friday when immigration officials questioned and arrested him before handing him over to officials of National Investigation Agency (NIA). NIA, which questioned Munaf, is learnt to have released him on Sunday December 25 after impounding his passport. It is said that NIA failed to get any strong evidence to support its notion that he had terror links.
As per media reports, Kerala police had issued a lookout notice for Munaf on the basis of telephonic conversations he had with some individuals with 'ISIS links'. When he came with wife and five children to the airport here at around 9 am on Friday, immigration officials took him into custody on the basis of the lookout notice, while sending his wife and children back home. He was found to be in possession of four lac rupees in cash in addition to foreign currency notes, sources said. Police sources claimed that he gave information about a person who had 'invited him to leave India and join ISIS'. It is said that Munaf had told his wife and children that they were visiting the family of his sister staying in Sharjah.
It is said that Munaf Rahman had suffered heavy losses in steel utensils business he operated at Thalassery. As he had married a girl from the city, he had started running some business here since the last four-and-a-half years. He stays with his family in an apartment complex near Old Kent Road in the city, as per information.