Author: Omer Farooq
Publication: The Pioneer
Date: January 22, 2009
URL: http://www.dailypioneer.com/151552/Abdul-Sattar-handed-over-to-Bangalore-police.html
Terror suspect from Kerala, Abdul Sattar,
who was arrested in a joint operation by police of the three southern States,
was on Wednesday handed over to Bangalore police for questioning in the Bangalore
bomb blasts case.
Fifty-seven-year-old resident of Malappuram
Abdul Sattar, who was nabbed by the counter-terrorism cell and central crime
station of Hyderabad along with a team of Kerala Police, was produced in the
Nampally court on Wednesday where the magistrate handed him over to Bangalore
police for 14-day remand.
The police officials in Hyderabad said that
Abdul Sattar has links with the south Indian brigade of Indian Mujahideen
and had close links with Riyaz Bhatkal who was wanted in connection with Hyderabad
twin blasts in August 2007.
Abdul Sattar had gone absconding from his
Hyderabad residence in November last year after his brother, Abdul Jabbar,
was arrested by Kerala police. The police had then said that Abdul Jabbar
had links with Lashkar-e-Tayyeba and had played a role in recruiting the youth
and sending them across to Pakistan for interrogation. The police said, "Abdul
Jabbar's name came to light after four Kerala youth were killed in an encounter
in Kashmir in November last year. One of the Kerala youth killed in the incident,
Abdul Raheem Aftab, was Sattar's son-in-law."
Sources said, "Abdul Sattar has admitted
his hand in preparing timer devices for bombs and supplied some of them to
Riyaz Bhatkal. The police are suspecting that these devices were used in the
blasts in Hyderabad, Bangalore and Surat. However, in case of Surat, the bombs
did not explode because of fault in the timers.
Radio mechanic by profession, Sattar has confessed
that he can make a timer device within 20 minutes. He has also admitted to
his links with Bhatkal with whom he had come in contact through Abdul Raheem
Aftab. The police sources said that Sattar revealed that Riyaz had visited
Hyderabad in 2007 and stayed at his home.
The police also said that Sattar was involved
in extremist activities since 1995 when he, along with others, had plotted
to kill the then Kerala Chief Minister EK Nayanar. But later, he fled to Hyderabad
and settled down in the city in 1998 and resided in seven different areas.
While he had first wife in Kerala, he married
second time in Hyderabad and has two children from the second wife. Police
officials said that further investigations by Bangalore and Kerala police
could throw more light on the network of Indian Mujahideen in the southern
region.
