Serial blasts suspect Nazeer's confession to cops shows threat much higher in North India
Serial blasts suspect Nazeer's confession to cops shows threat much higher in North India
South India may be on the terror radar, but the threat is not as high as in north India, if one goes by the distribution of Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) sleeper cells across the country that a prime terror suspect has revealed.
Only up to four LeT sleeper cells of the about 26 across India are in the south, the police learnt from a suspected LeT terrorist and accused in the serial blasts in the city.
Most of the sleeper cells are hidden away in the north, waiting for their handlers' word to get activated whenever needed, blasts accused Nazeer is said to have confessed before the city police.
Nazeer had escaped to Bangladesh soon after the blasts and taken shelter with co-brother Shafaz in Halishahar in Chittagong at the behest of his LeT bosses in October 2008.
How he got to knowThe police learnt from Nazeer that during this period, Shamshuddin alias Shamshu, a Pakistani LeT operative who was the caretaker of the two, blurted out the presence of 26 "teams" hiding in India during a conversation.
Nazeer asked Shamshu what teams meant and he explained it meant sleeper cells and that a majority of them were in north India.
During his stay in India till October 2008, Nazeer did not have any direct contact with LeT men, either in Muscat or Pakistan.
Though the training of five Kerala Muslim youths and the serial bomb blasts were organised by LeT through him, he was not directly contacted by LeT bosses, Nazeer is said to have told the police.
u00a0
He is said to have maintained the contact through a man called Sarfaraz Nawaz.
After the army attack on an LeT camp in Kashmir that killed five Kerala youths, Nawaz contacted Nazeer and instructed him to move on.
As per the instructions, Nazeer along with a man called K P Sabir and Shafaz reached Mumbai and asked Nawaz to help them leave the country.
u00a0
Since Sabir already had a fake passport, the visa had been arranged and he left for Dubai on October 23, 2008. Nawaz then promised Nazeer and Shafaz he would help them cross the Indo-Bangla border.
