LeT links deep-rooted in Kerala- NIA

KOCHI: The Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) has a welllinked network in Kerala and a core group of its activists organised by LeT commandant Abdul Aziz and David Coleman Headley has been operating in the state, sources in the National Investigation Agency (NIA) have said.

After the Karnataka police arrested Ibrahim Moulavi and Umar Farooq, the two suspected Malayali LeT activists, the focus of the investigation agency has shifted to unearthing the links the two had with Aziz, Headley and Tahawur Hussain Rana.

A team of Intelligence Bureau (IB) and the NIA will quiz the arrested to delineate the links established by the LeT in Kerala with the active support of suspects Thadiyantavide Nazeer, Umar Farooq and Ibrahim Moulavi.

“The LeT links are emerging well and clear with the Karnataka police keenly pursuing those behind the Bangalore serial blasts. The interrogation of Moulavi and Farooq will provide clear leads to the visit of Rana, the close aide of Headley, to Kochi, IB officials said.

It has been learnt from sources in the NIA that Nazeer and Farooq had coordinated with LeT leader Illyas Kashmiri, who in turn had worked in tandem with Headley and Rana.

According to the NIA’s request, the Interpol had already issued a red corner notice on Illyas Kashmiri and two other Pakistani nationals for abetting Headley, who had direct involvement in 26/11 terror strike in Mumbai.

Sources said the interrogation of Mohammed ZiaulHaq, who is said to be an important link in the global terror operating in the country, had ascertained the terrorist network in the country.

“Zia has links with Abdul Rahman Makki, who is said to be a deputy to LeT chief Hafiz Sayeed. Makki is coordinating the activities with Abdul Aziz, who is controlling terror operations in South India either from Bangladesh or Saudi Arabia,” the sources said.

“We will be ascertaining the role played by Moulavi and Farooq in the Kozhikode twin blasts and the terrorist recruitment from Kerala,” the sources added.

IB sources said Moulavi is suspected to be coordinating activities in Kerala as he had been camping in the state even after LeT’s key operative Thadiyantavide Nazeer was nabbed by the police

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