Cops probe Hyd'bad link of terrorists from Kerala

Muslim fundamentalist groups in Hyderabad have come under the police scanner and a strict vigil is being kept on the activities of their members, a top police official said on Tuesday.

When asked about a city-based organisation 'Nurushi Thareekath' allegedly imparting training to youths from Kerala to join 'jihad' in Jammu and Kashmir, Hyderabad City Police Commissioner B Prasada Rao said the organisation is located in Chandrayangutta in the city and a large number of youths from Kerala were undergoing religious teachings in it.

Reacting to a query on Kerala Home Minister Kodiyeri Balakrishnan's statement that 'Nurushi Thareekath' had trained youths from Kerala and sent them to J&K for terror activities, the Commissioner said, "30 to 40 per cent youths undergoing religious preaching at this organisation are from Kerala".

"We know that many Kerala youths take training here as this organisation gives religious preaching. But, we have no basis that this organisation is involved in extremist activities," he said.

The counter intelligence team of AP Police and special team from Kerala had nabbed a terror suspect Mohammed Abdul Jabbar here last month, after he earlier escaped during an encounter with security forces in Jammu and Kashmir, where four Kerala youths, who underwent training at 'Nurushi Thareekath' were killed.

Reacting to a query, if Hyderabad was emerging as a hub for terror activities, Rao said the country has witnessed series of blasts and it was perpetrated by cadres of various terror groups from different states.

"Why Hyderabad is being singled out. Andhra Pradesh is one of the states which has a large number of SIMI cadres," the top police official said.

Two other organisations Darsgah Jihad-O-Shahadath (DJS) and the Tahreek Tahfooz Sharia-e-Islam are under scanner of the intelligence agencies, he said.

Rao said, the probe into a SIMI activist and member of DJS, Viqaruddin, who is absconding after firing at police, is under progress.

"We can't tell whether Viqar, suspected to have terror links, had left the city," Rao said.

Viqar along with his accomplices fired at a police party injuring two policemen when they went to nab him at Santoshnagar in the city on December 3. He was at large for last one year after Mecca Masjid blast.

Refuting reports that young Muslim men missing from the city had left for Pakistan to be trained by terror groups, he admitted that some youths had disappeared but only to avoid arrests in different criminal cases.

"Some people are missing for different cases. It does not mean that they have left the city to join jihad. Some have gone for employment within different states of the country or abroad. It is a continuing process to find out the details about the missing youths. We are investigating into it. But, the parents do not want to disclose," he said.

"We are doing our surveillance, if the missing Muslim youths from city, if any, are being trained by Islamists terror groups in Pakistan," Rao asserted.