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The Indian intelligence agencies are in a sigh of relief mode over the killing of the head of the 313 Brigade Ilyas Kashmiri by a United States drone attack, given the fact that he was directly recruiting cadres from Kerala to be trained for terror in Kashmir.
Interestingly, a new phenomenon is erupting with the terror networks in discussion for giving charge of the Indian operation of the terror brigade to the elusive terror operative CAM Basheer, who hails from Kerala, sources in intelligence agencies said.
An aeronautical engineer by training and hailing from Aluva near Kochi in Kerala, Basheer was a former All India president of the outlawed Student Islamic Movement of India and has fled the country and is now believed to be based either in Saudi Arabia or Karachi, Pakistan.
Basheer was earlier in Sharjah and was running an educational institution there, but fled the United Arab Emirates after a deportation law with India came into effect with that country.
Believed to be one of the major fundraisers for jihadi movements, Basheer maintains high respect among the terror networks including the Al Qaeda and the Lashkar-e-Tayiba.
Basheer has also been instrumental in organising the terror journey of youths from Kerala across the border to be trained by Ilyas Kashmiri.
Highly placed sources in the intelligence agencies while speaking to rediff.com said, "Basheer is highly intelligent and can be dangerous given his contacts in the international terror network. We have certain information that Basheer could be heading the 313 Brigade in place of Kashmiri as he is also considered to be equally capable in execution of terror operations."