KOCHI: The Kerala Police have sounded an alert and spruced up intelligence coordination as they know that more than 3,000-km distance between Kerala and Kashmir cannot be a factor for the state to remain complacent at this time of India’s heightened offensive operation against terrorist groups.
Following the country’s second surgical strike on terror camps on Pakistani soil, the Kerala Police have started collecting ground-level inputs on extremist organisations’ sleeper-cell activities other than strengthening coastal security.
The police have upped the surveillance considering that terrorists could retaliate for India’s strike and the state should be prepared to diffuse any terror plot.
“We’ve alerted all district police chiefs to remain alert and take necessary steps to strengthen surveillance. Directions have been issued to coastal police and intelligence wing to step up monitoring,” said state police chief Loknath Behera. He also added the police were into various discreet operations without causing any panic to keep track of the suspected terror modules.
Kerala’s close link to terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir came to light after it was proved that four militants who were killed in two separate encounters with security forces at Kupwara district in 2008 were from Kerala. The deceased were identified as Muhammed Fayaz, 23, Muhammed Fahiz, 24, of Kannur, Abdul Raheem, 28, of Malappuram and Muhammed Yassin, 28, of Ernakulam.
These youth were recruited from Kerala by an organised recruitment cell of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and sent to Kashmir valley for training.