NEWS

Karnataka: Arrested 'terrorist' is prankster

By Vicky Nanjappa in Bangalore
November 06, 2007 21:47 IST

Are we reacting too much to terror? Considering the number of attacks in the country and abroad, it is perfectly justified to react in such a manner.

Here is a case which created quite a stir in Karnataka just a few days back.

Sheikh Yusufuddin was arrested on Thursday, was branded a fundamentalist the day he was arrested.

However, this man turned out to be more of a prankster rather than a fundamentalist or terrorist.

Senior police officers told rediff.com that Yusufuddin, who was arrested in Gulbarga in Karnataka, was in love with a girl from a different Muslim sect.

It is stated that both the girl and the boy belonged to different sects and hence the girl's parents were not agreeable to the alliance.

Investigations revealed that the boy was upset over being rejected and hence thought that it would be better to teach the girl's father a lesson.

He wrote letters to several mosques and temples stating that the girl's father intending blowing them up.

The authorities of both the mosques and temples immediately complained the police. The Hyderabad police, which is looking for clues into both the Mecca Masjid and the twin blasts, immediately got into the picture.

First they rushed to the residence of the girl's father in Gulbarga. The father told the police about the problem and came out with the entire story.

Acting on this the cops tracked down Yusufuddin to a bus stand at Dandoti village in Chitapur taluk, Gulbarga.

The Karnataka police say that they interrogated him for a couple of days and he revealed that he had written those letters in the name of his lover's father only to take revenge.

The police, to be on the safer side, also sent the letter to the Andhra Pradesh Forensic Science Laboratory to verify the handwriting. The FSL in its report confirmed the handwriting.

Yusufuddin now remains in the custody of the Karnataka police and has been booked for causing nuisance.

The police, however, are not letting go of him as yet. They say that they want to probe more and only then come to any conclusion.

The police say that they have also found out that Yusufuddin was an engineering graduate in textiles and was planning to take the civil services examination. It is stated that he was a brilliant student.

Vicky Nanjappa in Bangalore

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