Nazeer planned communal riots

As the anti-terror squad of the Kerala Police was preparing to leave for Bangalore to question LeT operative Thadiyantavide Nazeer and his associate and relative Shafaz, reports said that the Karnataka Police has learnt from them that the Pakistan-based terror outfit had planned to spark off communal riots in Kerala.

According to reports coming out from Bangalore, Nazeer had told his interrogators that he had prepared a programme to create communal riots under the instructions of the LeT in Malappuram and Kozhikode districts. The bid was to create communal polarizations leading to the outbreak of religious conflicts in the Muslim-dominated areas of the two districts, which would be useful in gathering support for extremism in these areas.

It is said that the Karnataka Police had already handed over such information to the police team hat had visited Bangalore earlier, which included Inspector General Tomin J Thachankery and Assistant Commissioner of Police PM Varghese, who was heading the probe the Kalamssery bus-burning case.

Thackankery was to undergo a general debriefing at the high-level police meeting scheduled to be held in Thiruvananthapuram on Wednesday, at which he would reveal all the information he had gathered during his four-day participation in the interrogation of Nazeer in Bangalore.

The information to be provided by Thachankery would form the basis of the interrogation of Nazeer and Shafaz, to be held by the police team headed by TK Vinodkumar, Deputy Inspector General, who was also the head of the Kerala Police’s anti-terror squad. The ATS team would leave for Bangalore later this week.

Reports said that Nazeer was yet to reveal the details of the plan to spark off commu8nal riots. The Kerala authorities were of the feeling that they could know more about this LeT programme only after they got Nazeer and Shafaz in their custody. As per the court order, the custody of the duo with the Karnataka Police would end on Friday.

The police now were of the feeling that several incidents, which were considered as local occurrings, in Malappuram district in the past two-three years could have had links with the LeT. The incident of burning of the tower doors of the Thali temple at Angadippuram in August 2007 and the clashes between two sections of people two years ago in Tirur could have been part of the LeT plan to foment communal tension, it is said.

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