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Security tightened as Coimbatore terrorists cross Kerala border

D Jose in Thiruvananthapuram

Security has been tightened in Kerala following intelligence reports about the possibility of Coimbatore-type blasts taking place in some parts of the state. A red alert has been sounded in the northern districts following definite information that the terrorists behind the Coimbatore blasts have crossed the border.

The state director general of police is camping at Thrissur, where a bomb blast in a train killed three persons on December 6 last year. The police is on the lookout for activists of Al-Umma, a Muslim fundamentalist organisation suspected to be behind the Coimbatore blasts that killed more than 80 persons. The Al-umma activists are said to have crossed the border after the crackdown in Tamil Nadu.

Top police sources told Rediff On the Net that the Muslim fundamentalist organisation has been targeting BJP leaders like C Rajagopal and Thampi. The police have identified Mohammad Sharief, based at Palakkad, as the main Al-umma agent co-ordinating terrorist activities in the northern districts. He is said to have received money from the ISI.

Al-umma has been under strict watch in Kerala ever since the Islamic Sewak Sangh was banned after the Babri Masjid demolition. Accused of being behind the pipe bombs that were seized from the Kaduluni river in Malappuram district, the Al-umma has been using the peaceful Kerala coastline as a major landing point for smuggled arms.

The police said the bombs used in the Coimbatore blasts could have originally landed in Kerala. There is some similarity in the explosions at Thrissur and Coimbatore. The Kerala police authorities are in contact with their Tamil Nadu counterparts to confirm the source of the arms.

The Al-umma has been involved in several violent incidents in different parts of the state. The police, while investigating certain specific cases, had traced links between the extremist organisation and a student organisation in Kerala. This organisation is also linked with a some extremist organisation in Tamil Nadu.

Al-Umma is known as Jamiyaath-ul Ishanya in some districts in Kerala. The organisation has obviously been formed as a bulwark against the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and the Vishwa Hindu Parishad after the banning of the ISS. Both organisations, the police say, have undertaken a kind of proselytisation effort in parts of Thrissur, Palakkad and Malappuram.

Kerala had a taste of extremist violence when several cinema houses were set ablaze in Malappuram.

Chief minister E K Naynar had, then, told the house that certain terrorist organisations in north Kerala were from Iran and other Gulf countries.

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