Author: Pioneer News Service
Publication: The Pioneer
Date: November 24, 2008
URL: http://www.dailypioneer.com/136576/Kerala-terror-man-held-in-Andhra.html
The recently formed anti-terror squad of the
Kerala Police, in a joint operation with a special wing of the Andhra Pradesh
Police, has arrested Abdul Jabbar (34), said to be one of the top operatives
of Lashkar-e-Tayyeba in Kerala, from Hyderabad.
Jabbar, hailing from Valamaruthur, Mangalam,
Tirur, Malappuram, had escaped a security forces' action in Lolab valley in
Kashmir early October with injuries. Four terrorists from Kerala were killed
in the action that took place in different phases on three days.
Sources in the police said the arrest of Jabbar
could create a very positive turn in the ongoing operations against terror
operations in Kerala. He would be brought to Kannur and produced before the
Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate in Thalassery.
Though the Kerala Police said that Jabbar
had escaped action in Kashmir while trying to sneak into Pakistan with injuries,
B Sreenivas, Inspector General of Police, Kashmir, had repeatedly said that
nobody had escaped the action in Lolab, Kupwara, in October.
A Kerala Police team headed by Deputy Inspector
General of Police TK Vinodkumar, chief of the anti-terror squad, Superintendent
of Police James and Circle Inspector Prince Abraham had been engaged in a
clandestine operation jointly with the anti-terror cell of the AP Police for
the past many days in Hyderabad, where LeT had been conducting training camps
for fresh recruits.
With the arrest of Jabbar, the number of persons
booked so far by the anti-terror squad for subversive activities rose to eight.
According to the police, it was in the first
week of October, Jabbar suffered injuries in an attack from the security forces
while he was trying to cross international border into Pakistan. In operations
undertaken by the security forces on October 4, 5 and 11, four terror operatives
from Kerala were killed.
They were Muhammad Faiz from Kannur, Abdul
Raheem from Parappanangadi, Malappuram and Muhammad Yasin alias Varghese Joseph
alias Rimon from Chakkarapparambu, Kochi.
Police sources said that Jabbar, who did not
have much connection with his house, used to reach home only occasionally.
He had married twice, from Mannarkkad and Purathur, and had two kids from
his second marriage.
After his mother's death, his father had shifted
out of his house after marrying another woman. Sources also said that Jabbar's
brother Abdul Samad was an NDF activist and an accused in an attempt-to-murder
case.
Seven persons had been arrested earlier in
connection with the recruitment of the four terrorists killed in Kashmir and
Jabbar and all seven were now in remand. The first to be arrested was NDF
Abdul Jaleel of Edakkad, Kannur, who had talked to the Malayalee militants
in Kashmir over phone.
The second to be held was Muhammad Faizal
from Thayyil, Kannur, whom dead militant Fayaz's mother Safiya had identified
as the person who had taken her son away promising to get him a job in Banglaore.
Mujeeb of Mouvanchery, Kannur, known to be
a liaison man for the top recruiters, was arrested from his wife's house in
Ochira, Kollam. Nainar Ali, the next to be held, was said to have close connections
with the top LeT operatives in Kerala.
Feroze from Pathalam, Ernakulam, who played
an important role in the recruitment of Muhammad Yasin, killed in Kashmir,
and Badaruddin of Kaloor, Kochi were arrested from Malappuram. The seventh
terror element to be arrested was Nawas.
The police hoped that Jabbar's arrest would
help him in tracking down the top-most LeT recruiter in Kerala, Nazeer of
Neerchal and his right-hand man Ibrahim Moulvi of Vellamunda, Wayanad. Feroze
and Badaruddin were said to have had close connections with Abdul Raheem of
Chettippady, Parappangadi Malappuram, another of the four Malayalee militants
killed in Kashmir. They also had connections with terror operative Nazeer.