Author: Express News Service
Publication: The Indian Express
Date: July 28, 2008
URL: http://www.indianexpress.com/story/341180.html
Even as terror struck at soft targets across
India for two successive days, the Q Branch wing of the Tamil Nadu police
on Sunday claimed to have busted a terror module that was planning to orchestrate
blasts in Chennai and a southern district. One person has been detained in
connection with the case.
Sheik Abdul Gafoor, a 39-year-old from Tirunelveli
district was arrested by the anti-extremist wing of the State police from
Pettai in his native district. He was employed at a private company in Chennai's
T Nagar.
According to police, Gafoor is a member of
an outfit known as the Jihad Committee, whose leader Ali Abdulla is lodged
in the Puzhal Central Jail near Chennai on charges including murder and arson.
It is said that a plot was hatched in the jail to organise blasts at places
of worship in Chennai and Tirunelveli Collectorate, specifically on or before
August 15. There are other reports stating that there was also a plan to target
a train running between these two districts.
DGP K P Jain said that they received information
that Gafoor was manufacturing bombs and directed the Tirunelveli district
police to raid his residence. The raid resulted in the seizure of as many
as 21 parts used in manufacturing IEDs including timers, battery cells, plastic
materials and circuit diagrams. The plan, added Jain, was to ferry these objects
to Chennai. Police are interrogating Gafoor to know more about the group and
its activities.
In the wake of serial blasts in Bangalore
and Ahmedabad, Chief Minister M Karunanidhi, who also handles the Home portfolio,
had held a high-level meeting at the State Secretariat on Sunday and instructed
the force to spruce up the security measures. On Saturday, the state police
had received an alert from the central agencies about a possible attack on
sensitive installations and places of worship in Tamil Nadu.
