Author: Shaju Philip
Publication: The Times of India
Date: October 21, 2008
URL: http://www.indianexpress.com/news/arrested-ndf-worker-was-planning-mission-in-kerala-say-police/375724/
Abdul Jaleel, who was arrested by the Kerala
Police on Sunday for his alleged links with militants in Kashmir, had been
involved in "remote-controlling" a mysterious mission in Kerala,
claimed state intelligence sources.
"Going by the pattern of the phone calls
between Jaleel and his links in Kashmir, we suspect that he had been tracking
some mission, planned and executed by a network of people from Kerala and
elsewhere in the country," sources told The Indian Express, explaining
that a number of very short calls were interspersed by more lengthy conversations,
suggesting that some sort of "mission" was being monitored. Others
in the network, including its main leader, are still at large, they added.
The police have said that Jaleel is an activist
of the right-wing Muslim outfit National Development Front (NDF) and had close
links with a suspected militant who was killed by security forces in Kashmir
while he was trying to cross the LoC on October 7.
Jaleel's Kashmir connection had come to the attention of security agencies
a few days prior to October 5, which is when he had discarded his mobile's
SIM card. Intelligence sources said that the person or persons in Kashmir
had called Jaleel repeatedly since they may have been in danger.
The sources added that Jaleel had conveyed
his "helplessness" to the police. However, they are taking his claims
with a pinch of salt. "We do not believe his version. The fact that the
distress calls came to him is an indicator of his prominence in the alleged
Terror network."
Unable to attend the frantic calls from Kashmir,
Jaleel jettisoned the mobile SIM card on October 5, two days prior to the
killing of the suspected militant from Kerala.
Sources said all of Jaleel's calls to Kashmir
were made through the mobile recovered from the killed militant. It has to
be ascertained whether one or more persons in Kashmir had been in touch with
Jaleel through that SIM card.
Meanwhile, the Government of Kerala has decided
to hand over the case to the anti-terror squad headed by DIG T K Vinodkumar.
State Home Minister Kodiyeri Balakrishnan said the case would be probed exhaustively
and that the funding sources of the extremist elements in the state would
be investigated more seriously.
