Terror man Sattar in ATS custody

The
Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate, Thalassery on Monday left Abdul
Sattar alias Sainuddeen aka Sattar Bhai, a native of Kundotty,
Malappuram district, in the custody of the special Anti-Terror Squad of
the Kerala police for 10 days for interrogation.

The Edakkad
Police, produced Sattar, believed to be the manufacturer of almost all
the Indian Mujahiddeen bombs that went off in various Indian cities
last year, after receiving him from the Karnataka Police who were
questioning him in Bangalore in connection with the blasts in the
Garden City.

The ATS officials expected to get valid information
on the terror network operating in Kerala from Sattar, who was arrested
jointly by the Karnataka Police and the counter-terrorism wing of the
Andhra Pradesh Police from Hyderabad on January 20. He was believed to
have close links with Nazeer of Neerchal, Kannur, suspected to be the
chief recruiter in the South for Lashkar-e-Tayyeba and Indian
Mujahiddeen.

The State police had earlier said Sattar had
admitted his role in the various blasts that occurred in the country
last year and that he himself had designed most of these bombs.
According to information, Sattar had been taking the young terror
recruits from Kerala to the LeT training camps in Hyderabad and sending
them to Pakistan after preliminary training. Information about Sattar
was given by Abdul Jabbar of Malappuram, the other terror operative
arrested in Hyderabad earlier.

As per the investigations by
the Intelligence Bureau and the various state police forces, Sattar, a
native of Karuvankallu, Kondotty, Malappuiram, was one of the chief
operatives of the Indian Mujahiddeen in South India. He was one of the
prime accused in the case relating to the close-to 100 pipe bombs
seized from Vengara, Malappuram in 1995. Sattar, known as an expert in
electronics, was in hiding for 13 years till his arrest in January.

Sattar’s
name had come up recently in the media after reports said that he had
connections with PDP chairman Abdul Nasser Madani and his family,
though Madani rejected the allegation the other day.

Reports
from Bangalore had said that the Karnataka Police had learned that the
daughter of Sattar was attending school in Kochi staying at the house
of Madani’s wife Sufiya. According to the records at Sharaf’ul Islam
English Medium Lower Primary School, Kaloor, Kochi, Sufiya Madani was
the local guardian of Sainuddeen’s daughter Fazeela Begum. However,
Madani said the other day that Fazeela was the daughter of a household
help, who had been with his family earlier.

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