DMK Headquarters, Next Target of Jihadis!

“They were a module which planned to blast the flyover and the Tirunelveli collectorate before August 15,” said DGP K P Jain. The accused are all suspected to be former members of banned militant organizations including SIMI and Al-Umma, which carried out the Coimbatore serial blasts. During interrogation, Gafoor told police the mastermind of the plot was a convict in Chennai’s Puzhal central jail, Ali Abdullah, who is serving a life sentence in a blast case.

Terror plot was hatched from jail

Following the arrest of Abdul Gafoor in Chennai and seizure of timer devices on Sunday, police have picked up three more suspects and recovered an improvised explosive device buried near a road in Madurai.

During interrogation, Gafoor told police the mastermind of the plot to bomb Anna flyover and DMK headquarters was a convict in Chennai’s Puzhal central jail, Ali Abdullah, who is serving a life sentence in a blast case.

Abdullah, a former member of the Islamic Defence Force and All India Jehad Committee, is still undergoing trials in at least seven other cases of subversion. Abdullah had contacted Gafoor through Hira, a member of a fringe fundamentalist group who had been released on bail a week ago. Hira, his associate Abdul Khader and a Tirunelveli native, Mohammad Badusha, who is alleged to have trained Gafoor in electrical circuitry, have all been picked up.

Abdullah is believed to have contacted Gafoor using a cellphone from prison. Hira, alias Syed Kasim, was the go-between. Officials said Hira had met Abdullah in prison in January 2007 when the former was taken into preventive custody. Abdullah had briefed him about plans to carry out terrorist attacks and assigned him the job of enrolling people for the operation. Gafoor, 39, an employee of a footwear trader and a father of two, was assigned the task of procuring IEDs.