Author: A.V. Ragunathan
Publication: The Hindu
Date: October 29, 2004
URL: http://www.hinduonnet.com/2004/10/29/stories/2004102908420100.htm
The Cuddalore police claim to have
busted a fundamentalist outfit - Manitha Neethi Pasarai (MNP) located at
Nellikuppam - which has been allegedly converting Dalits into Islam and
imparting training to them in handling weapons and martial arts.
The police have rounded up 15 persons,
including three women - Pashira, Fatima Beevi and Chithira Rahina - and
seized from them long sickles, foreign-made daggers, cellphones (one having
Arabic names and numerals), audio and video cassettes, an amplifier, a
binocular, a camera, digital diaries, incriminating documents and Rs. 85,000
(in the denomination of Rs. 500).
But the masterminds, Khaja Mohideen
(45) of Neyveli and Abdul Khani alias Pichaikhani of Keezhakarai have escaped.
According to the police sources, the MNP was said to be having a nationwide
network and was suspected to have links with the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation
Front of Yasin Malik and acted as a recruiting agency to beef up the terrorist
forces in Jammu and Kashmir.
Funded from Riyadh
The MNP, which came into being a
few months ago, had well-formulated syllabi and the trainees were indoctrinated
with "hate literature" and compact discs showing the demolition of the
Babri Masjid at Ayodhya, the Coimbatore serial bomb blasts, the Godhra
carnage and the Gujarat riots. The MNP received foreign funding, the sources
said.
Already, one batch of 40 persons
passed out, and a section of the second batch, undergoing training, fell
into the police net. The MNP was part of an institution, "Arivagam" at
Muthudevanpatti in Theni district, and had contacts with the Tamil Nadu
Development Foundation Trust at Periyapet in Chennai. While the former
was training cadres in combat tactics, the latter was teaching the tenets
of Islam to the converts, the sources said.
After preliminary training at Nellikuppam,
advanced training would be given at Muthudevanpatti and Ernakulam before
the cadres were despatched to Kashmir. The MNP, suspected to be a resurrection
of the proscribed Students Islamic Movement of India, was having nexus
some other outfits also.
The Deputy Inspector-General of
Police, Sanjay Arora, told presspersons here today that the MNP had a militant
orientation and there was prima facie evidence of its running a training
camp. But no explosives were found there, he said.
The Cuddalore Superintendent of
Police, K. Prem Kumar, said the National Security Act would be invoked
against the arrested. The MNP came to light when the police probed a gang
attack on Arokiyaraj of Thirukkulam who prevented the kidnap of his friend,
Sirajudeen's daughter by one Osai Mani alias Sultan with the help of Vidiyal
Velli, another MNP wing.
