Dreaded terrorist Hyder Ali arrested after being on the run for 21 years.

published on June 5, 2014

Hyder Ali, alias Engineer Ali, one of the most wanted in connection with the attempt to murder leaders of Hindu organisations in 1989, has been arrested by sleuths of the CB-CID Special Investigation Division (SID). A suspected extremist, Ali has been on the run for more than two decades. He was arrested on Monday from Palakkad district in Kerala.
“Ali was produced before a judicial magistrate in Coimbatore on Tuesday and remanded in custody. He is currently reported to be lodged in the Coimbatore Central Prison,” said police sources.
Hyder Ali, who hails from Ukkadam in Coimbatore spent nearly eight years in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia’s capital, before returning to India where he was hiding in Kerala and Bangalore.
According to Intelligence officials, “they planned to seek custody of him to probe his activities in the past two decades. His years in Riyadh would be of particular interest.”
Hyder Ali and 21 others had attacked Sridhar and seven other members of Hindu organisations at Coimbatore in 1989 when they were returning from a funeral. An attempt to murder case was registered and subsequently, the CB CID took over the investigation.
Hyder Ali and his associates had also plotted to kill leaders of various Hindu organisations after the Central Bureau of Investigation arrested Al-Umma founder S.A. Basha in 1993 on charges of involvement in the bombing of a Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) office in Chennai on August 8, 1993, which killed 11 persons and injured seven.
The police had registered a case in 1993 against Hyder Ali on charges of criminal conspiracy to commit murders and possession of explosives. He was remanded to judicial custody here yesterday.

Police are probing if Ali had links with conduits of terror sleeper cells during his “self-imposed exile” of eight years in Saudi Arabia.

It is also being investigated if he had contacts with another absconding terrorist Abu Backer Siddique, who carries a reward of Rs five lakh on his head.

Sources said a petition seeking police custody of Hyder Ali would be filed soon.