Suspected SIMI activist taken to Hubli

Bangalore, Feb 22 (UNI) The electrical engineer, arrested by the city police last night on charges of having 'links' with the banned SIMI, was today taken to Hubli for further interrogation.

Corps of Detectives DIG Alok Kumar, the head of the team that apprehended him, said Mohammed Kammakutty alias Yahya Khan was suspected to be a key member of SIMI in Karnataka. ''He had earlier worked in a US-based MNC in the city. He was sacked a few months back for 'suspicious behaviour,'' he said.

''He is a B Tech from Calicut and had come to Bangalore to work for the MNC. The arrest was based on the information provided by medical student Mohammad Asif, arrested in Hubli early this month,'' he said.

Yahya was staying in a house in the teeming Gurrapannapalya area in the city for the past eight years.

Police sources said a computer hard disk and some jehadi literature were seized from his house. However, three to four of his associates had managed to escape.

In January, Davangere police had arrested two persons -- Riyazuddin Naser of Hyderabad and Asadullah Abubakker of Hospet on charges of stealing two-wheelers from Goa. Following their interrogation, it was found that they were LeT operatives, who planned terror strikes in the state and Goa.

Based on the leads obtained from them, police had arrested Asif and three others, who were members of SIMI. Asif had confessed to the terror camps held in the forest areas of Dharwad district and a consignment of arms and explosives dispatched to the gang from Pakistan. However, before they could lay their hands on the consignment, they were arrested.

Police, who had taken Asif to forests of Kalghatgi in Dharwad district, had found a cache of detonators and gelatine sticks in the forest.

The arrested had been subjected to narco-analysis, poligraph and brain mapping tests.

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