One more held in Kerala as worried cops look to unearth more terror links

The special anti-terror squad of the Kerala Police on Sunday formally arrested one person, Nainar Ali (26) in Kannur for his relations with the terror groups operating in Kerala even as the police in Ernakulam district released two young Assamese men, taken into custody for suspected connection with the recent blasts in Guwahati in which more than 70 people were killed, after Intelligence officials failed to find any proof of their involvement.

The Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate, Thalassery, Kannur remanded in custody Nainar Ali, arrested formally at Edakkad Police Station in the district on Sunday morning, for 14 days. Nainar, a native of Maidanappally, Kannur, had been in police custody for the past several days and he was undergoing interrogation, which the police said was quite useful. The police said several criminal cases had been pending against Nainar.

They said it was established from the information provided by Nainar that he was a close associate of Nazeer of Neerchal, Kannur, believed to be the kingpin in the operations of Lshkar-e-Taiba and its top recruiter in the State. From the interrogation of Nainar by VK Akbar, DySP of the special anti-terror squad, it was known that he had helped Nazeer in recruiting young men to be taken to the LeT training camp in Hyderabad. With Nainar in the police net, the fourth person to be arrested since the start of the current anti-terror operations, the police hoped to catch the two absconding men, said to be top terror operatives, Nazeer and Ibrahim Moulvi of Vellamunda, Wayanad. They said Nainar had been able to provide them with very valuable information.

The first to be arrested by the police in the current terror hunt was NDF activist Abdul Jaleel of Edakkkad, who had talked over phone to some of the Malayalee militants killed by security forces on the India-Pakistan border in Kashmir early October. Jaleel was said to be an accomplice of those who had been recruiting young men from Kerala for LeT and other terror groups outside Kerala.

His interrogation had led to the arrest of Muhammad Faizal, who was one of the recruiters for LeT. He was arrested after Safiya, mother of Muhammad Fayaz of Thayyil, Kannur town, had identified him as the man who had taken her son from home on September 10 saying he would get him a job in Banagalore. Fayaz was killed in Lolab valley, Kashmir by the security forces while trying to sneak into Pakistan.The third man to be arrested was Mujeeb (28), of Chakkarakkallu, Kannur, who had helped Nazeer and Ibrahim Moulvi to recruit young men for enrolling in LeT and sending for training to the Hyderabad camp. Mujeeb was taken into custody by the Kollam police on October 28 from his wife’s house in Ochira but was arrested formally on November 3.

The two young Assamese men were, released after questioning by Perumbavoor police, taken into custody after it was revealed that one of them had sent a phone message to Guwahati which contained threats, just after the blasts. One of the persons was named Mohammad Saibal Isra, the police said. They were released late in the evening after it was established that they had no connection with the blasts.

Isra was taken into custody from a brick-making unit at Pattimattom near Perumbavoor, Ernakulam district where he was working. P Vijayan, Superintendent of Police, Rural, Ernakulam, said the police had not got any evidence to prove their direct connection with the Guwahati blasts.

Certain groups of migrant labourers, especially from Assam, West Bengal and Orissa, had been under the scanner of the police for quite some time now in the context of the violent incidents in various parts of the country. The Andhra Pradesh police officials had some months ago arrested a top Maoist leader and his accomplice from the same region.

Responses