Interrogation of the Kerala-based Jamat-i-yyathul Ansarul Musalimeen founder, Mohammad Sameer, has revealed that the 13/7 Mumbai blasts were planned in Dubai for which funding came to Kerala via Muscat, reports Vicky Nanjappa.
Investigators are finding more and more evidence of a nexus between incidents of terrorism in India and funding for it directly emerging out of Kerala. The arrest of hawala operator Kanwarnain Vazirchand Pathreja in connection with the 13/7 Mumbai blasts case establishes this nexus.
Pathreja was picked up in New Delhi on the charge that he was a hawala operator working for the Indian Mujahideen. Interestingly, the tip off came from Kerala based Jamat-i-yyathul Ansarul Musalimeen founder, Mohammad Sameer, who is being grilled by both the Karnataka and Kerala police.
The police is, however, yet to confirm whether Pathreja was directly connected with the Indian Mujahideen or whether he was moving money without knowing what he was getting into.
Sources say that while interrogating Sameer, it was revealed that money was being moved out of Kerala for all the recent blasts, and was being distributed through various operatives in different parts of the country.
Pathreja was one such operator who was in touch with Yaseen Bhatkal, who gave the final touches to the recent blasts in the country.
While the arrest of Pathreja will give the police some clues, the most important person that they are banking on is Sameer.
He is a crucial member who founded the JIAM, which is a front organisation for the IM that operates out of Kerala. Although not directly involved in many of the blasts, Sameer has a fairly good idea of how the IM manages to network between Kerala and Dubai and link it to the rest of the country.
Sameer was picked up by the Delhi police and later handed over to the Bangalore police. Since his detention and arrest he has been questioned on various aspects including the Bangalore serial blasts. He was also taken to Mysore where the police believe he had stayed for a while during the planning of the Bangalore serial blasts.
However, Sameer today appears to be more important to the Kerala police. A source in the Kerala police department informed that the line of investigation is three pronged. The first one is the functioning of the JIAM in Kerala, as a front organisation for the IM. Second, is the hawala network in Kerala that is responsible for funding 80 per cent of the terror strikes in India, and the third, is with regard to the youth that are being sent to Kashmir to train to fight alongside the Lashkar-e-Tayiba.
So far Sameer has been spilling the beans about the hawala network and also the manner in which the recent spate of blasts were planned outside India. He has told the police about a strong Dubai module that is in the know of the attacks before they take place in India. This was something that had come to light after the Varanasi blasts when the police said that the entire operation was remote-controlled from Dubai.
Apart from attacks being planned in coordination with the Dubai module, Sameer also speaks about Muscat, which has become the main front from where money is being sent to Kerala and later being distributed through hawala operators.
Sameer hails from Thana in Kannur and claims that most of the money that comes in from Muscat lands in his district from where it is transferred to the rest of the country as and when there is a requirement.
The police say that one can expect more crackdowns in the days to come and there is an entire ring of the JIAM/IM combination that will be busted soon. However, police refused to divulge more details as it could hamper investigation.
The police, however, add that Sameer is a prized catch, as he was handling both operations of the JIAM and IM, and more importantly, played a key role in recruiting youth for the Kashmir operation.
In addition to this, Sameer would also be helpful for the police to find out if he had anything to do with the funding of the 13/7 blasts which police now say was planned in Dubai for which the funding came from Kerala via Muscat.
