The Kerala police on Thursday confirmed that six more youngsters from Kannur district have joined the Islamic State (IS) in Syria.

Police said that these people were active workers of PFI in Kerala.

The development comes amid police trying to confirm news about the death of five Islamic State sympathisers from the district in Syria.

The news about the death of one of them, Muhammed Shajil (25) was conveyed by his wife in a foreign country, to his uncle. The wife of another Rishad disclosed information about his death to her mother.

Three youths - Mithilaj, Abdul Razzak and Rashid - with suspected links to the IS were arrested by the Valapattinam police in the district on October 25 followed by the arrest of two others the next.

According to some estimates around 100 Indian have left to fight for the Islamic State mainly in Syria and Iraq. Most of these cases have been reported to police by the families of these youths.

In July 2016, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan told the Assembly that 21 Muslim youths from the state had gone missing over a month, and it was suspected that they had joined the extremist group.