Mujeeb took Faiz, Fayaz, Faizal to LeT camp: Police

The special anti-terror squad of the Kerala Police has found that it was Mujeeb, arrested on Monday, who had taken Muhammad Fayaz and Faiz, the Malayalee militants killed in Kashmir early in October and their recruiter Muhammad Faizal to Hyderabad for terrorist training at the Lashkar-e-Taiba camp in Hyderabad even as two more persons were arrested from Aluva on charges of extremist activities.

S Sreejith, Superintendent of Police, Kannur, who was also heading the anti-terror operations in the northern district, told newsmen on Tuesday that Mujeeb was a close associate of Nazeer of Neerchal, Kannur, said to be the kingpin of the LeT network in Kerala, Ibrahim Moulvi of Vellamunda, Wayanad, the one who had been taking classes to recruits all over the State, and another extremist from Malappuram district.

The police took Mujeeb (28) of Mouvanchery, Chakkarakkallu, Kannur, into custody on October 28 from his wife’s house in Ochira in Kollam district. During the six days of his intense interrogation, the police found that before beginning operations in Kerala on behalf of LeT, he had received a 40-day specialist training at a terrorist camp in Hyderabad.

The police also found that Mujeeb had taken more young men than Fayaz, Faiz and Faizal to the LeT camp in Hyderabad. Three major operatives of the terror network, Jaleel, Faizal and Mujeeb, had now been arrested by the anti-terror squad in Kannur alone.

Sreejith said police were convinced that Mujeeb had a strong role like Faizal in the terror network of Kerala. He was arrested from Ochira after he had gone missing from Chakkarakkallu when he was under the police scanner after the arrest of NDF activist Abdul Jaleel and LeT recruiter Faizal. The Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate, Thalassery, remanded Jaleel in custody for 14 days.

The police in Aluva arrested two young men, Ismail and Sabeer, said to be close associates of Nazeer, on charges of extremist activities. They were said to have been involved in the case related to the burning of a Tamil Nadu State bus at Kalamassery on September 9, 2005, reportedly to put pressure on Governments to release PDP chairman Abdul Nasser Madani from the Coimbatore prison where he was lodged then in the Coimbatore serial blasts case.

The police had carried out raids on Monday night in the Vadakara region of Kozhikode district based on the information provided over the phone by local people who noticed suspicious movements. However nothing could be recovered or nobody was arrested in the raids held at lodges and houses at Makkul Peedika, Adakkatheru, Thazhe Angadi and Randam Miles in Vadakara.

Meanwhile, reiterating the Government’s perspectives on the presence of terror networks in Kerala, Chief Minister VS Achuthanandan said that reports appearing in the media about extremist activities in the State were highly exaggerated. Talking to newsmen after attending the two-day meeting of district collectors and department secretaries in Thiruvananthapuram, Achuthanandan said that the State police and its intelligence were probing the extremist activities efficiently.

The Chief Minister said putting a particular community in the dock for the activities of some people could lead to distrust among people. He said adoption of terrorism by mafia elements for money could not be connected to any community. He asked the media to show restraint while reporting sensitive issues like terrorism.

Meanwhile, the PDP continued to claim that it had no relation with any kind of terror operation or outfit. Poonthura Siraj, working chairman of PDP, said that the party was ready for self-dissolution if anybody could prove that it had links to terrorism. He reiterated the PDP’s earlirer charge that it was the Muslim league which was responsible for the entry of young men into terror outfits.