கர்நாடகா: இஸ்லாமிய பயங்கரவாத இஞ்சினியர், டாக்டர்கள் கைது

கர்னாடகா பாசனத்துறையில் வேலை செய்யும் அஸிஸ்டெண்ட் எகஸகியூட்டிவ் என்ஞினியர், டாக்டர் ஆகியோர் இஸ்லாமியபயங்கரவாத செயல்களை திட்டமிட்டிருப்பது கண்டுபிடிக்கப்பட்டுள்ளது.

இந்தியாவில் இருக்கும் அமெரிக்க நிறுவனங்கள் மீது குண்டு வீசி தாக்கவும், ஆந்திர பிரதேச போலீஸை தாக்குவதற்கும் இவர்கள் திட்டமிட்ட்டுள்ளனர்.

இவர்களுக்கும் சிமி என்ற இஸ்லாமியமாணவர் அமைப்புக்கும் தொடர்புள்ளது என்றும் போலீஸார் தெரிவிக்கின்றனர்

Irrigation Department engineer detained for terror links
Special Correspondent
He is suspected to have financed Asif and two other terror suspects
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Firearms originating from Pakistan were supplied to the arrested youths
Nasir had plans to target software firms in Bangalore
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BANGALORE: The police detained for interrogation an Assistant Executive Engineer of the Irrigation Department in Koppal district on Monday on suspicion of having contacts with three suspected terrorists arrested by Davangere and Hubli police recently.

Sources in the State Police told The Hindu that on the information given by Mohammed Asif, a final year MBBS student of Karnataka Institute of Medical Sciences (KIMS) Hubli, who was arrested recently, a police team from Hubli detained the engineer in Munirabad in Koppal district.

The man, working in the Tungabhadra project, is suspected to have financed Asif and two other terror suspects Riyazuddin Nasir and Asadulla Abubaker, who were arrested by Davangere police. Asadulla is a resident of Hospet taluk in Bellary district, which is a few kilometres away from Munirabad.

Firearms


The investigators have learnt that a consignment of firearms originating from Pakistan and reaching Ujjain in Madhya Pradesh was supplied to the arrested youths. The weapons, which were said to be in Asif’s possession, were shifted to an as yet undisclosed destination after the medico learnt that Nasir and Asadulla had been arrested in Honnali in Davangere district. The police are now on the search for these weapons, which they suspect include AK-47 rifles.

The police suspect that Asif had handed over the arms consignment to Aznan of Bijapur, a former regional convenor of the banned Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI). The police are now on the lookout for Aznan.

The sources said that soon after they were apprehended by the police, Asadulla is said to have called Asif on his mobile phone and informed him that he had been caught. The police are also on the lookout for two accomplices of Asif, one of whom has been identified as Jehangir.

The police are also probing the Afghanistan links of the arrested youths and their connections with terror modules in Kerala.

Terror plans


Riyazuddin Nasir had reportedly planned to trigger explosions at the Andhra Pradesh State police headquarters in Hyderabad.

During the interrogation by the Karnataka police, Nasir (22) has reportedly claimed that his handlers in Pakistan had assigned him the plan to execute. His claims have still to be confirmed and investigations are on by the Karnataka and Hyderabad police to do this. The police are also investigating Nasir’s other claims: that he had planned to attack American software companies in Bangalore. He mentioned Microsoft and IBM as among his targets, highly placed sources in the State police told The Hindu on Monday.

Nasir, a native of Hyderabad, told the investigators that he could not carry out the attack on the DGP’s office in Hyderabad as he did not receive the arms and ammunition from the terrorist outfit on time after sneaking into India through Bangladesh and Nepal last August, after undergoing arms training in Pakistan.

According to the sources, Nasir has claimed that his plan to attack the DGP’s office could not take off as his mentor and Harkat-ul-Jihadi (HuJi) commander Abdul Shahid, a fellow Hyderabadi, was shot dead in Pakistan. As he could not complete his assignment, his handlers had asked him to return to Pakistan, he said during the interrogation. However, he decided to stay back in India and shift base to Karnataka as the Hyderabad police were on the lookout for him.

After the twin explosions at Lumbini Park and Gokul Chats in Hyderabad, Indian authorities had urged Pakistan to hand over Shahid to India as he was suspected to have plotted a series of blasts in Andhra Pradesh. Shahid was later shot dead by unidentified men while he was riding a motorcycle in a Pakistani town, the sources said.

Meanwhile, participating in a national seminar on “Terrorism Disasters” here on Monday, P.K.H. Tharakan, Adviser to the Karnataka Governor and former chief of the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), said a “major incident” had been averted with Nasir’s arrest, although he did not specify the incident.

The sources said the investigation of Nasir and his two arrested accomplices strongly suggests a network spread across several cities in Karnataka, including Bangalore.

Nasir and Asadullah Abubakar, a first year Ayurveda medicine student of a college in Hubli, were arrested last month while they were riding a motorcycle in a Davangere village. Subsequently, the police arrested their accomplice Mohammed Asif, a final year MBBS student of Karnataka Institute of Medical Sciences in Hubli.

On information given by Asif, the police confirmed that Nasir had organised an arms training camp in a forest area near Hubli. It also emerged that Asif was connected with the banned Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) and he was propagating the cause of “jihad,” the sources said.