KOCHI: Mohammed Sabir alias Ayub, the fugitive accused, who is among the most wanted in terrorism cases in the state, is settled in the Pakistani city of Rawalpindi and using that country’s passport to travel to Dubai. Sabir is an accused in the Kalamassery bus burning case, the trial of which will commence at the National Intelligence Agency (NIA) court soon.
“We’ve information that he’s frequently travelling between Dubai and Rawalpindi using a Pakistani passport. As he’s holed up in Pakistan, like Indian Mujahideen founder Riyaz Bhatkal and underworld don Dawood Ibrahim, extraditing him to India is a daunting task,” an officer said. A native of Marakkarkandi in Kannur, Sabir left India for Dubai when agencies started a manhunt for the suspects having links with Lashkar-e-Taiba after four Keralites were killed in Kashmir in an encounter with security forces in 2008.
He along with Thadiyantavida Nazeer were the main men for Lashkar-e-Taiba in south India. While Nazeer was traced to a hideout in Bangladesh, Sabir fled to Dubai using a fake passport. “During an interrogation of a terror suspect in 2016, we got information that Sabir met some Keralities in Dubai. From there he moved to Pakistan,” an officer said.
Sabir came on the agencies’ radar after he allegedly hatched a plot to murder former Chief Minister E K Nayanar in 1999. He was later involved in a jewellery shop robbery case organised to fund terror activities. Later, his involvement was revealed in the 2005 Kalamassery bus burning and Bengaluru blast.
Again in 2008, his name came up for recruiting youth to fight for Lashkar-e-Taiba. A lookout notice and Interpol red corner notice are pending against him.