One held for terror links in Kerala

Thiruvananthapuram, Oct 20: A labourer hailing from Kadachira in kannur district of Kerala was arrested by Police for alleged terror links. 37 year old Abdul Jaleel was held after his cellphone number was found in mobile phones of militants killed in kupwara of Jammu Kashmir a fortnight ago.

Jaleel, an activist of Kerala-based right wing Muslim outfit National Development Front (NDF), is alleged to have had close links with the suspected militant. A painter by profession, he was allegedly active in propagating fundamentalism. He had also taken part in a recent rally organised by the NDF in Kannur to protest against the Indo-US nuclear deal.

Kerala police said that Jaleel replaced his SIM card on Oct 5 which he was using nearly for a year. On Oct 7 and 10, four militants died in two encounters in Kupwara. The police found the sequence of the events suspicious. Abdul Jaleel initially denied getting calls from Jammu Kshmir. But when confronted with the details of his old SIM card, he told the police they were calls from strangers seeking details about people here.

Jaleel was in police radar after the police stepped up vigil against the suspected terrorists on the basis of Intelligence alerts from New Delhi. Jammu Kashmir police initially had claimed that some of the militants killed in Kupwara were Malayalis after retrieving Kerala voter Identity Cards(ID) on them. But Kerala police later traced the voter ID cards to two persons residing in the state. They said the cards could have been forged.

Arrest of Jallel is a major breakthrough for the Kerala Police, who now hope to crack the suspected Terror module operating in the state. After the serial blasts in Ahmedabad in July 2008, the Gujarat Police had revealed that the arrested Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) activists had undergone arms training camp at Vagamon hill station in Kottayam.

OneIndia News