Author: Shaju Philip
Publication: The Indian Express
Date: March 28, 2009
URL: http://www.indianexpress.com/news/blast-accused-says-he-met-pdp-chief-in-oct-07/440074/
Raising questions over the CPI(M)'s claim
that its new passport to the Muslim vote bank in Kerala, Abdul Nassar Madhani,
shunned extremism after the Coimbatore blast case, a suspected Lashkar-e-Toiba
(LeT) operative has told the Karnataka Police that he was in touch with the
People's Democratic Party chief even after Madhani's release from jail.
Ex-SIMI leader Sarfaraz Nawaz, who was brought
from Oman last month by the RAW in a secret operation, told the police that
he had met Madhani in Kollam in October 2007, three months after his release
from Coimbatore jail.
Karnataka Police say Nawaz, 31, funded the
Bangalore serial blasts.
Nawaz told the police that he and three others
- Tadiyantavide Nazeer, Abdul Raheem and Ummer Farook - met the PDP leader.
Nawaz said it did not have anything to do with terror. However, according
to him, Madhani held separate discussions with Nazeer and he was not privy
to the conversation.
After the killing of four Kerala youths in
the Valley, Madhani had feigned ignorance about Nazeer, a PDP activist. Madhani
had told the media that he had not met Nazeer after coming out of jail.
Nazeer is suspected to be the mastermind of
the plan to recruit youths from Kerala and send them to LeT's Terror camps
in PoK. While the police have managed to bust the module, Nazeer has escaped
the dragnet. Farook, who the police suspect had undergone training in PoK,
too, is absconding.
Raheem was one of the four youths from Kerala
who were killed while trying to cross the LoC last year.
Both Raheem and Farook had been part of the
conspiracy to torch a Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation bus in 2006 for
the release of Madhani.
Nawaz told the police that the group had met
Madhani to iron out differences between Farook and Razeeb, a close aide of
the PDP leader, over a loan. The meeting turned acrimonious and Nawaz, Raheem
and Farook walked out. However, Madhani took Nazeer for a meeting which lasted
for one hour. After the meeting, Madhani assured Farook that his money would
be returned.
