One more deadly jihadi terrorist from Kerala held in Andhra

Pioneer News Service | Kannur

The recently formed anti-terror squad of the Kerala Police, in a joint operation with a special wing of the Andhra Pradesh Police, has arrested Abdul Jabbar (34), said to be one of the top operatives of Lashkar-e-Tayyeba in Kerala, from Hyderabad.

Jabbar, hailing from Valamaruthur, Mangalam, Tirur, Malappuram, had escaped a security forces’ action in Lolab valley in Kashmir early October with injuries. Four terrorists from Kerala were killed in the action that took place in different phases on three days.

Sources in the police said the arrest of Jabbar could create a very positive turn in the ongoing operations against terror operations in Kerala. He would be brought to Kannur and produced before the Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate in Thalassery.

Though the Kerala Police said that Jabbar had escaped action in Kashmir while trying to sneak into Pakistan with injuries, B Sreenivas, Inspector General of Police, Kashmir, had repeatedly said that nobody had escaped the action in Lolab, Kupwara, in October.

A Kerala Police team headed by Deputy Inspector General of Police TK Vinodkumar, chief of the anti-terror squad, Superintendent of Police James and Circle Inspector Prince Abraham had been engaged in a clandestine operation jointly with the anti-terror cell of the AP Police for the past many days in Hyderabad, where LeT had been conducting training camps for fresh recruits.

With the arrest of Jabbar, the number of persons booked so far by the anti-terror squad for subversive activities rose to eight.

According to the police, it was in the first week of October, Jabbar suffered injuries in an attack from the security forces while he was trying to cross international border into Pakistan. In operations undertaken by the security forces on October 4, 5 and 11, four terror operatives from Kerala were killed.

They were Muhammad Faiz from Kannur, Abdul Raheem from Parappanangadi, Malappuram and Muhammad Yasin alias Varghese Joseph alias Rimon from Chakkarapparambu, Kochi.

Police sources said that Jabbar, who did not have much connection with his house, used to reach home only occasionally. He had married twice, from Mannarkkad and Purathur, and had two kids from his second marriage.

After his mother’s death, his father had shifted out of his house after marrying another woman. Sources also said that Jabbar’s brother Abdul Samad was an NDF activist and an accused in an attempt-to-murder case.

Seven persons had been arrested earlier in connection with the recruitment of the four terrorists killed in Kashmir and Jabbar and all seven were now in remand. The first to be arrested was NDF Abdul Jaleel of Edakkad, Kannur, who had talked to the Malayalee militants in Kashmir over phone.

The second to be held was Muhammad Faizal from Thayyil, Kannur, whom dead militant Fayaz’s mother Safiya had identified as the person who had taken her son away promising to get him a job in Banglaore.

Mujeeb of Mouvanchery, Kannur, known to be a liaison man for the top recruiters, was arrested from his wife’s house in Ochira, Kollam. Nainar Ali, the next to be held, was said to have close connections with the top LeT operatives in Kerala.

Feroze from Pathalam, Ernakulam, who played an important role in the recruitment of Muhammad Yasin, killed in Kashmir, and Badaruddin of Kaloor, Kochi were arrested from Malappuram. The seventh terror element to be arrested was Nawas.