They scout for jehadis & keep tabs on activities

KOZHIKODE: A hardline religious group which brainwashes youths into radical Islam is behind the developments which culminated in the recruitment of Malayalis for terrorist training in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.

According to sources, it is this group which transformed the Muslim youths in Kannur town (Thayyil area) into fullblown jehadis.

The gang zeroed in on by the police after the latest developments in Kashmir is called the ‘operation wing’, which gets religious sanction for its activities from the fanatic group.

The activities of this wing include fighting what they perceive as ‘un-Islamic’ behaviour, like Muslim women mingling with males from other community or having affairs with Hindu men. Two young men were murdered by this gang for having an affair with Muslim women, a few years ago. The gang came into focus again recently during the Ramzan month.

There were Iftar stalls arranged at a few places in Kannur to enable Muslims to break the fast. Muslim women had come in large numbers to these stalls.

Enraged by the ‘anti-Islamic’ act, the gang threatened the stall owner. Subsequently, two bombs were placed near the stalls as a warning sign.

A leader of this group was under police surveillance, but he is now missing.

Abdul Rahim from Chettipadi, the terrorist killed along with Muhammad Fayaz, also had shown signs of getting indoctrinated by the group. He had led an aloof life and was against women in his family mixing with others.

A former PDP worker who is accused in a case of planting a bomb at the Coimbatore Press Club, is suspected to be the kingpin of the gang. Nazeer, hailing from Kannur city area, is involved in two murder cases and in the alleged attempt to murder former Chief Minister E K Nayanar.

The fact that the calls from Kashmir came frantically asking for Nazeer points to his deep involvement in the fundamentalist game plans.

Another person in the list of suspects is a former PDP district secretary, who was later sent out of the party. Sources said he was a person with links to terrorist groups outside the state. He could also be a link in sending Malayalis, including Fayaz and Rahim, to Kashmir.

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