The two boys from Kerala, who were rescued from Tirupur by the Kerala police, reportedly ran away from their homes in Pattambi on account of family issues, and not really to join any extremist organisation as reported in sections of the media, police sources said.
Sub-Inspector of Police (Pattambi) Lisad Mohammed said: “Among the children rescued, Mohammed Shabeer (19) had some problem with his family members and so decided to go away from the place. Salman Pharis (19), his close friend, decided to join him and the two reached Tirupur to join in one of the garment units in the cluster a few weeks ago.”
They had been traced by the phone locations as Pharis contacted his family members in Pattambi occasionally. Both of them were produced before the magistrate on Thursday and restored to their parents, he said.
Police officials here too said that these children did not figure in the list of youth who were reported missing from Palakkad district and northern Kerala and suspected to have joined IS.
“We have confirmed that with the Superintendents of Police in the districts of Kerala from where the cases of missing youth who were supposed to have joined IS, had been reported”, a senior official here said.
