After Sri Lanka blasts, NIA raids 3 places in Kerala over suspected Islamic State links

India's National Investigation Agency (NIA) has nabbed three men who are alleged to have links with Sri Lanka attacks mastermind Zahran Hashim. The men have been accused of plotting terror attacks in Kerala, India Today reported.

NIA also carried out searches at houses of the three suspects, two in Kasaragod and one in Palakkad. The three persons are suspected to have links with some other people, especially youth, who left India to join the terror outfit.

During the raids on Sunday, a number of digital devices including mobile phones, SIM cards, memory cards, pen drives and diaries with handwritten notes in Arabic and Malayalam, DVDs of Zakir Naik were retrieved.

Investigating officers also found untitled DVDs, CDs with religious speeches, books authored by Zakir Naik and Syed Kutheb.

Authorities are trying to find out more details about their ties with the terror group following  bombings in Sri Lanka that claimed several lives, including over 10 Indians.

Soon after Sri Lanka's attack, India has stepped up security across south India states. Tamil Nadu has been on high alert since the bomb blasts shook the island nation on April 21.

Further NewsX reported that  on Monday NIA arrested Riyas Aboobacker and two other men with links to Sri Lanka blasts mastermind Zahran Hashim for plotting explosions in Kerala.

The accused have been arrested on grounds of conspiracy to carry out a suicide attack in Kerala. Riyas was produced before the NIA court on Tuesday and remanded to judicial custody till May 29.

Riyas Aboobacker, who is also known as Abu Dujana was arrested from Palakkad following his alleged links with Sri Lanka blast mastermind and plotting terror attacks in Kerala.

Sri Lanka mastermind Hashim who had spent over two months in India late last year was in touch with many Indians including Riyas, the report claimed. Sources suggest that more than a dozen men from Tamil Nadu and Kerala are under the agency’s scanner.