Kozhikode: Nazir taken to twin blasts spots

The National Investigating Agency, probing various terror related cases in Kerala, on Tuesday took suspected Lashkar-e-Taiba operative T Nazir to two bus shelters in Kozhikode where he had allegedly masterminded the March 2006 blasts.

Nazir with his face covered by a mask was taken to the private bus station and the nearby KSRTC bus station on busy Mavoor Road here around noon amid tight security by NIA official T K Rajmohan who is heading the probe team.

Prior to this, he was taken to the adjacent Markaz mosque complex, NIA sources said. Nazir, suspected to be LeT's South India commander, was brought last night as part of information gathering on the twin blasts in two bus stations in which two persons including a police constable were injured. He was later taken to the government guest house for questioning, sources said.

Nazir, a resident of Kannur, is suspected to have masterminded a well orchestrated network to recruit youths from Kerala to the Pakistan-based LeT to carry out subversive activities. The terror suspect remained elusive for months till his arrest last year along the Indo-Bangladesh border.

Nazir has reportedly confessed to have plotted the blasts in the two crowded bus stations in Kozhikode and torching of a Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation bus near Kochi in 2005 to protest the detention of People's Democratic Party leader Abdul Naser Madhani in a Coimbatore jail in connection with the 1998 serial blasts. He was earlier in the custody of Bangalore Police in connection with the July 2008 serial blasts there.