Terror man Hameed sent to judicial custody

The
Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate Court in Thalassery on Friday
remanded CK Abdul Hameed, 45, arrested for terror relations, in
judicial custody till January 15. Upon remand, Hameed was sent to the
Central Prison, Kannur.

AK Akbar, DSP in the recently formed
anti-terror squad, said Hameed, Kulangara Illath House, Cheriyakath,
Mattanchery, Kochi was arrested on Thursday from Malappuram, but there
were reports earlier that he was taken into custody last week from New
Delhi. Hameed, also known as Muhammad Yusuf and Ameer Ali, was staying
in Delhi for the last six years and owned an electrical appliances shop
in East Delhi.

Hameed was said to be the regional commander of
Indian Mujahiddeen who had sent five Malayalees militants, including
the four killed in encounter with security forces early October in
Kashmir, for terror training. He had gone underground after being
charged as first accused in the case of attempt to assassinate former
Chief Minister EK Nayanar. He was also an accused in the case relating
to the sending of Muhammad Ashraf, an accused in the Marad case, to
Pakistan for training in 1998.

Hameed had settled down in Yamuna
Vihar, East Delhi setting up an electrical appliances shop after brief
stays in Bangalore and Hyderabad. According to the police, Hammed had
arranged accommodation for the five Malayalee extremists who had gone
to Kashmir in a bid to cross over to Pakistan.

Four of them,
Muhammad Faiz, Muhammad Fayaz (both from Kannur), Abdul Raheem of
Parappanangadi, Malappuram and Muhammad Yasin alias Varghese Joseph
from Chakkarapparambu had been killed in an encounter at Lolab Valley,
Kashmir, in early October. The fifth, Abdul Jabbar, had escaped Kashmir
with injuries but was caught from Hyderabad last month.

The
police said Hameed had been in contact with Sajir alias Ayub of Kannur,
who was considered to the top LeT man in Kerala for the past ten years.
There were also reports that Ayub had stayed at Hameed’s residence for
about ten days for planning the transfer of newly recruited elements
for terror training.

The police believe that Hameed’s terror
connections run straight into the central system of Lashkar-e-Tayyeba.
The police are convinced that Hameed, said to be an expert at
assembling explosives, had a big role behind the blasts in Greater
Kailash, Delhi last September. They also think that explosives for the
serial blasts in Coimbatore that targeted BJP leader LK Advani on
February 14, 1998, were made by Hameed.

The Malayalee, known
in the Yamuna Vihar locality as Yusuf, had been running a shop for
electrical goods. The police had also reportedly questioned Aslam, a
help-hand at the shop. That Aslam was from Bangladesh had increased the
concerns of the State police as Kerala had the presence of a large
number of Bangladeshi workers in the construction sector, according to
Intelligence agencies.

Meanwhile, VK Rajan, Additional Chief
Magistrate Court Judge, Thalassery granted permission to the police to
subject Abdul Jabbar, arrested on terror operation charges to polygraph
tests as part of investigations into the terror network.

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