BENGALURU: The arrest of alleged extremists -- Mohammed Haneef Khan (29), Imran Khan (32) and Mohammed Zaid (24) -- from Gurappanapalya in Bengaluru by the internal security wing of the Tamil Nadu police indicates serious lapses in the security apparatus of the city. In August 2014, the Tamil Nadu police with assistance from the Central Crime Branch of Bengaluru had arrested four suspect jihadis Abdul Shameem, Sadiq, Shahid Ali Nawaz and Samiullah from the latter’s house in Sonenahalli slum in Viveknagar police station limits for their alleged involvement in the June 18 murder of Hindu Munnani general secretary Suresh Kumar in Ambattur.
Shameem and Nawaz, who had reportedly confessed to the crime had said they were tasked with the murder of Kumar by one Khaja Moiuddin, who was arrested in Chennai. Shameem was arrested in 2013 for alleged involvement in the near-fatal attack on the 69-year-old BJP leader M R Gandhi in Nagercoil.
Though Shameem, Sadiq, Shahid and Samiullah were originally from Tamil Nadu, Samiullah and Sadiq had long migrated to Bengaluru.
After their arrests, the Jehad Committee has been split into independent modules for operational purposes, an intelligence officer had then stated. Five years later, Haneef, Imran and Zaid from one of the unnamed modules, which is said to be behind the murder of Suresh, were found holed up in Bengaluru with ammunition. “The city police did not know about their presence,” an official source said.
According to sources in the TN police, the three are members of a yet-to-be-named module in Karnataka is headed by Khaja Moiudeen, who was arrested by the Special Cell of the Delhi Police on Thursday. “The module in the two southern states has been recruited by an external hand... They were also behind the murder of Special Sub Inspector Wilson of Marthandam near the Padathalamoodu check post in Kanyakumari on Wednesday night,” said the officer. He added that this extremist module in Karnataka and TN “could be inspired by Abu Baqr Siddique - the fugitive head of the proscribed terror organisation Al Umma, but they don’t owe allegiance to the outfit,” he added.