After Bhatkal and Mangalore in Karnataka, Bihar’s Darbhanga, Pune, Kerala has become the target of the Indian Mujahideen for setting up sleeper cells and recruiting terrorists. Top arrested IM commander Yasin Bhatkal has told his interrogators that he has been instrumental in setting up new sleeper cells of IM in north Kerala districts. The agencies are now trying to gather more evidence on these modules and the suspects named by Bhatkal who were being trained to carry out fresh strikes in the country.
Bhatkal has also told his interrogators that his network was spread across Kathmandu and Karachi where terror recruits were trained in Lashkar-e-Tayyaba (LeT) training camps and sent back to the country for terror operations.
Investigators have pointed towards an alarming trend of recruitment of Keralites for terror activities in the Gulf countries. The investigators got the first clues while probing the conspiracy behind the 2008 Bengaluru blast case. A Lashkar module allegedly headed by T. Nazir, a Keralite, was held responsible for the operation.
According to sources, LeT has been trying to recruit Keralites in Gulf countries for the last many years, where they have a sizeable population.
Bhatkal has now spilled the beans on the flourishing modules of IM in the southern state, putting investigators on the trail of IM modules in Kasaragod, Kannur and Kozhikode districts of north Kerala.
Sources said the Kerala modules of the IM have particularly been instrumental in bringing large funds from the Gulf countries through the hawala network for terror operations in the country.
With the IM scouting for new hideouts after the 2008 Batla House encounter, sources said, Kerala emerged as a preferred destination as several sympathisers of the banned Students Islamic Movement of India, the Harkat-ul Jihad-al Islami and the LeT continued to exist there. The state also served as an easy transit point to cross over and chanellise funds for the IM, the sources said.