Tamil Nadu, followed by Kerala have emerged as the new safe haven for Islamic terrorists operating from South India, say senior intelligence officials based in Chennai. They were reacting to the arrests of five suspected Islamic terrorists from various places of Tamil Nadu over Monday and Tuesday.
Tuesday evening saw sleuths of the National Investigating Agency sweeping down on Samsudeen alias Karuvayan Samsudeen at Madurai. He is believed to be one of the livewire activists of the Base Movement, a Tamil equivalent to al Qaeda.
Four persons, believed to be activists of the Base Movement were held from various places in Tamil Nadu on Monday. They are N Abbas Ali (27), Samsun Kareem Raja (23), M Ayub Ali (25) and Suleiman (23). The last named works as a software professional in a leading conglomerate basd in Chennai while others are associated with printing business.
Sources in IB and Tamil Nadu police confided that those arrested were conspiring to unleash a series of terrorist activities including assassinations all over India. “We have tracked strong undercurrents of secessionist activities in Tamil Nadu and Kerala spearheaded by various Islamic outfits. All these arrests have been made based on precise information gathered by our moles,” said a senior intelligence official.
He said all espionage agencies have increase the intensity of monitoring the suspects. “All suspects are always on our radars and hence there is nothing to panic,” he said.
Activists of Sangh Parivar had held a state-wide fast on November 22 in Tamil Nadu against the increased terrorist activities. “Islamic terrorists have murdered 139 Hindu activists and policemen in Tamil Nadu since 1989,” said Ramakrishnan Gowthaman, of Vedic Science Research Centre who along with Ramagopalan of the Hindu Munnai had submitted a memorandum to union home minister early this month about the unabated increase in the number of Hindu activists murdered in the State.
last month saw the NIA in association with the Intelligence Bureau and Kerala Police arresting six youths from Kannur in Kerala. Those arrested were said to be activists of an Islamic State-inspired module . An official of the NIA had mentioned that they were held while planning terrorist activities in South India including the assassination of prominent personalities in Tamil Nadu, Kerala,Karnataka, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. Immediately after the arrest of the six youths fromKeral, the NIA had held Subahani Haja Moideen from Tirunelveli in Tamil Nadu.