Police on high alert in Karimnagar with NIA arrest of two PFI men

KARIMNAGAR: With the NIA arresting two persons, Mohammad Irfan from Hussainipura of Karimnagar and Adbul Saleem from Jagtial, for their alleged links with the militant Popular Front of India (PFI), the officials of the police and intelligence departments are now doubly alert in Karimnagar region.

Special teams of the national investigation agency had raided several places in  Karimnagar and Jagtial districts and seized some documents and a dairy from the houses of the suspects. They shifted Irfan and Saleem to Hyderabad for further investigations.

The region has a history of terrorist and militant forays. Two decades back, in April, 2000, a major terrorist encounter took place at Jagtial. The police killed Azam Ghauri, a terrorist who had links with terrorist outfit Lakshar-e-Taiba.

Later, in 2002, the police had an encounter with Azeez Ahmed who was the South India incharge of Lashkar-e-Taiba at Rekurthi Nagar when he was taking shelter in Karimnagar. Police said his aim was to kill then Union minister Vidhya Sagar Rao and Chinnajiyar Swami who were about to attend a Sri Ramayagam programme in Jagtial.

After a decade, in 2013, some activists of the Lashkar-e-Taiba looted the SBI branch in Choppadandi. The NIA later found the name of the bank on the label of a bundle of notes found at the scene of a blast in the militants’ den near Burwahan in West Bengal.

Two years back, Nizamabad police arrested Abdul Khader and found he was one of the main followers of Azam Ghauri and had links with terrorist outfits. He had trained some 200 youths from Hyderabad, Kurnool, Nelloor, Kadapa, Warangal and Karimnagar districts through the Popular Front of India, police said.
The police found that Jameel Ahmed was district chief of PFI. Running a coaching centre by name the Institute of Mathematics (IOM) in Makarpura area in Karimnagar town, he was also involved in several activities of the PFI  in Karimnagar region.

This apart, the police also came to know that Jameel Ahmed had links with a large number of Muslim youths in Karimnagar, Peddapalli, Jagtial and Rajanna Siricilla districts.

Meanwhile, in view of the present NIA raids, the police and intelligence departments of Karimnagar have intensified their vigil and are keeping a check on the activities of suspects.