SIPA policemen | Photo: SIPA

A total of six Bosnian citizens suspected of having connections with Islamic State have been detained in a series of operations, media reported on Monday.

One of them was arrested in Turkey while allegedly trying to reach Syria to join Islamic State militants, Bosnian media quoted the state prosecution as saying.

Senad Kostac, a 23-year-old from Velika Kladusa in Bosnia’s north-west, had travelled from Montenegro to Turkey and intended to travel on to Syria to fight, reports said.

Kostac was sent back to Montenegro and then handed over to the Bosnian prosecution for questioning. His lawyer, Elvir Gacanovic, told Sarajevo-based website Klix that he had asked for his client to be released on bail.

“We are waiting for the court to decide on this issue… on Tuesday morning,” Gacanovic told Klix.

According to the police, two other people connected with Kostac were arrested on Saturday by the State Investigation and Prosecution Agency (SIPA) at the Hum-Scepan border crossing between Bosnia and Herzegovina and Montenegro.

In a separate operation, SIPA also arrested another three people from Velika Kladusa on Monday afternoon.

According to SIPA, police found large quantities of hand grenades, anti-personnel landmines, ammunitions, weapons, explosives and with an Islamic State flag during the arrests.

All six suspects are accused of forming paramilitary groups and joining other such units in foreign countries, local media reported.

This is the second major police swoop mounted against Bosnian citizens suspected of connections with ISIS in recent weeks.

On December 22, Bosnian police arrested 11 people who are suspected of inciting terrorism and recruiting jihadis, claiming that they were also planning a major terrorist attack on New Year’s Eve.

Last February, police also arrested one person in Velika Kladusa during a large-scale operation codenamed Damascus which targeted a jihadi recruiting network in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Bosnia and Herzegovina is one of the main exporters of foreign fighters from the Balkans to the Middle East conflicts.

According to the Bosnian authorities, at least 217 Bosnian citizens have left so far the country to join Islamic militants in Syria and Iraq, and 26 of them have reported to have died there.