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Sadananda R in Chamarajanagar
The mastermind of the 1993 RSS office bombing in Madras, Imam Ali, who was killed along with four of his associates in Bangalore on Sunday, had links with Osama bin Laden's Al Qaeda, senior police officials believe.
Imam Ali was on the run after escaping from the Madurai prison in March 2002.
Pictures of Osama bin Laden were recovered from a house Imam Ali and his associates had used.
While taking the house on rent, Imam Ali had given a Kerala address as his permanent residence.
The police also recovered maps of Karnataka and some other South Indian states from the house. The maps were widely marked with brief notes scribbled around them.
The police suspect the terrorists had plans to carry out subversive activities in South India. In fact, Tamil Nadu had intelligence that the five intended to blow up temples in South India to create communal tension.
Three live bombs recovered from the house gives credence to this theory.
The Tamil Nadu police had tapped Imam Ali's phone calls for three months, a senior Bangalore police official said.
Investigators in Bangalore are now looking into Imam Ali's probable links with local criminal gangs.
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