With the police receiving information that a Pakistani also is associated with the Saudi Arabia- based leader of the Muslim Defence Force (MDF), whose members were arrested in the State, investigators are to probe the organisation's possible links with the banned Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and the ISI of the neighbouring country.
Though the December 6 anniversary of the Babri Masjid demolition passed off peacefully, the police have launched a sustained hunt for the remaining nearly 20 persons belonging to the organisation. The heightened watch seems more out of an anxiety to prevent any untoward incident.
As the case has both national and international ramifications, the police are to seek the assistance of Central agencies as part of a comprehensive probe. Besides this, preventive detention of the arrested persons is being planned as a strategy to thwart the ultras' plans. A proposal has been sent for transferring the case to the CB- CID's Special Investigation Team (SIT), which has Statewide jurisdiction and deals with fundamentalist activities, says a police officer connected with the case, in which 11 persons have been nabbed so far.
Tracing MDF's origin by piecing together the version of those arrested, the police say that as happened after the serial blasts in Coimbatore in February 1998, the backlash of the Godhra carnage in Gujarat was videographed in different languages and sent abroad, where minorities lived, to convey a ``wrong impression'' about the country vis-à- vis minorities security. The video was played at meeting venues in Saudi Arabia, heightening anxiety among people there.
The MDF leader, Abu Hamsa, and Abu Omar, a Pakistani, also working in the Saudi Arabian capital, Riyadh, came together and allegedly set the ball rolling for the formation of the organisation. Two of those arrested in the State, who were working there, attended the meetings. Abu Hamsa and his Pakistani associate are stated to have met a religious leader from Tamil Nadu, who gave discourses and who went to Saudi Arabia on Haj pilgrimage.
On his return to Tamil Nadu, the leader held the first meeting at Tenkasi (Tirunelveli district) in May, attended by 30 like-minded persons, in which the need for the organisation in the State was emphasised. This was followed by another meeting at the nearby Courtallam the next month.
After the visit of a couple of members to Sri Lanka, with the hope of meeting Abu Hamsa there a month later, who, however, did not turn up, a meeting was held again at Royapettah. The police say they have evidence of the ultras' visit to the island.
The finances of a trader, who gave
assistance to the organisation, are also under scrutiny. Some of the arrested
members were allegedly contacting Abu Hamsa for his `orders', the sources
say.