Several arrests of people with alleged terror links have established that terror sleeper cells exist in the city. But the involvement of “specialists” from Maharashtra, assisting their colleagues in Bengaluru, shows that an active and bigger cell than found in Karnataka might be operational in Maharashtra.
Earlier this month, the police arrested Mohammed Akram alias Khalid, a 22-year-old from Islampur, in Nanded, Maharashtra. The police report before the magistrate stated that the police had information that Akram was moving towards the KSRTC bus-stand in Subhashnagar in an auto (KA-02, AB-6932) when he was intercepted and arrested at 8.55 pm on September 1.
In his confession, Akram named two other operatives — Furkhan and Abdu Hansala — involved in the terror module, besides Zakeer alias Ustad, who was handling the Karnataka operations. But the police are baffled as the other arrested terror suspects could not throw light on Furkhan and Hansala.
The police said Zakeer contacted Akram 10 days before Ramzan and asked him to help others in the terror module to execute a right-wing journalist. It was Zakeer who was coordinating strategies with several modules, including the one in Maharashtra.
After the interrogation of arrested suspects, the police now believe that the Maharashtra module is far more sophisticated and deep rooted as compared to the Karnataka unit. Security experts term the present ‘targeted module’ as a franchise that has strong ideological links to the LeT and HuJI but operates on its own.
These modules operate independently, and in most cases they are not aware of other modules and their targets. Which is why, a senior police officer said, information from the interrogations of the suspects is going to be limited and will not lead to any big fish.