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ShareTHIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Shameer Alikutty is a porter in Perumbavoor near Kochi. Going by the stamps in his passport, the 36-year-old is a globetrotter.
Shameer was in for a shock when the police appeared with his passport, which he had pledged for Rs800, five years ago. It had travelled around the world, until security agencies recovered it from a hotel room in Kish Island, Iran. The current holder of the passport, a Lashkar-e-Taiba operative based in the UAE, gave his trackers the slip though.
Kerala police have also found that the passport was used as identification proof to get a mobile phone connection by Thadiyantavide Nazeer, a Lashkar-e-Taiba honcho suspected to be in charge of the outfit's operations in south India. There are reports that Nazeer, wanted in a slew of cases in Kerala, was arrested from a madrasa in Chittagong, Bangladesh last week.
Nazeer, a co-founder of Indian Mujahiddeen, is supposed to be the kingpin of a racket which recruits mercenaries from Kerala and Karnataka for LeT. In January, the police chargesheeted 22 youths, including four youths killed by security forces in Kupwara last year, on sedition charges. Though the Hyderabad police had nabbed Sainuddeen alias Sathar, suspected to have links with Hyderabad, Bangalore and Ahmedabad blasts, Nazeer remained elusive.
Nazeer is also accused of conspiring to assassinate former chief minister EK Nayanar and burning a Tamil Nadu state transport bus near Kochi to protest Abdul Nasser Madhani's imprisonment.
Investigating agencies suspect that Nazeer's racket is involved in creating logistical support for the militants. They procure passports from unsuspecting citizens and use it as a cover for militant movement and communication. The porter's passport, for instance was obtained through his relative, for a paltry Rs800. Nazeer might have handed over Shameer's passport to Ayub, who left it behind in a hotel room in Kish Island.
