Cops probe Madani's links with Bengaluru blast suspects

The Bengaluru police are probing the involvement of controversial People's Democratic Party leader Abdul Nasser Madani in the serial blasts that rocked the city in July 2008.

The police are waiting to interrogate the PDP leader, who has been admitted to a hospital at Kannur in Kerala, to get more information.

Two people had been killed on July 25, 2008, when nine serial blasts had rocked the IT capital.

Sources in the Bengaluru police told rediff.com that they suspect a strong link between the PDP chief and terror suspect Nasir alias Haji Umar, who also hails from Kannur. Nasir is a member of the top cadre of the now defunct Islamic Seva Sangh, which was responsible for inspiring and recruiting youths for Jihadi moment.

The police have registered nine cases in connection to the blasts and ten terror suspects have been arrested.
The final chargesheet will be filed against 26 accused, of which ten are already in custody. While four accused died in an encounter with the Army in Kashmir, the remaining 12 are absconding.  Out of the 26 terror suspects, four are foreign nationals and the city police have sought help from the Interpol to nab them.

Nasir, 35, the son of a rich businessman in Kannur, was one of the principal recruiters of Jihadi youths. He recruited five men from Kerala to cross over to Pakistan from Kashmir last year to attend terror training by Lashkar-e-Tayiba leaders.

Four of them were killed by the Army, while the fifth man, called Jabbar, was arrested by the Joint Investigation Team of the Kerala police from Hyderabad recently.

During interrogations, Jabbar told the officials of the Anti-Terrorist Cell of the Karnataka police that LeT operatives had trained him for a week in Kashmir and later armed him with an AK-47 assault rifle to help him cross over to Pakistan.

Abdul Sattar alias Sainudeen, the main suspect in the Bengaluru blast case, was arrested by the city police a few months ago. He assisted the five men in Hyderabad and his ISS associate, Abdul Hameed alias Amir Ali, helped them in New Delhi on their journey to Pakistan through the Kashmir valley.

Abdul Hameed, a karate instructor and ISS strongman, fled Kerala in 2000 after the police charged him with plotting the murder of the then chief minister E K Nayanar. Hameed was arrested by the JIT team at the Kasargode railway station.