Following the discovery of terrorist training camps in northern Karnataka, police sources now say that perhaps over a 100 Muslim youth may have been recruited at these camps.
Police say that recruits are mostly medical or engineering students
BANGALORE: Following the discovery of terrorist training camps in northern Karnataka, police sources now say that perhaps over a 100 Muslim youth, many of them studying for professional degrees, may have been recruited at these camps that have been found in the thinly-populated jungles in Kalghatgi area of Dharwad district, 400 km from the state’s capital, Bangalore.
The camps were discovered following raids by police from the Davangere and Hubli’s anti-terror squads.
Information about the likely existence of these camps came to light after the police grilled one of the trainers, Mohammed Ghouse alias Mohammed Nasir, who was trained in a camp near Lahore in Pakistan way back in 2005.
Ghouse and his accomplice Asadullah Abubakkar, a medical student were arrested by the Davangere police last week for motorcycle lifting. The police also found material that contains ‘jihadi’ elements which led the cops to suspect them of involvement in terrorist activities. It is believed that there terrorists are from the Lashkar-e-Toiba militant group
Police sources have also said that this could well be the first training camp of the terrorists in the southern part of the country.
An official attached to the Karnataka anti-terrorist cell said, “The recruits are mostly medical and engineering colleges in Dharwad, Hubli and Davangere and some are from the banned Students Islamic Movement of India and Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front.”
The confession of a Karnataka Institute of Medical Science student Mohammed Asif, who was arrested by the Davangere police in Honnali early this week, a village near Davangere, led the police to the camp where they found bullets, airguns and PETN (Pentaerythritol tetranitrate or pentrite), a powerful explosive.
“Ghouse and his associates conducted camps two days a week depending on the convenience of the recruits since they were students. It was ‘initial training camp’ for the new recruits,” an official said.
Police suspect the camp could have been recently established. The area that was raided by the Honnali police, incidentally is a religious shrine of Islam that was frequented by devotees from all religions.
“The place is on Hubli-Karwar route where Satho Syeda dargah and Hazrat Sayed Diwan dargah sporting Pakistani flags are situated,” sources said. The camp area has been marked with arrows, bunkers and trenches as well as red and black painted areas for practice shooting.
k_bhargavi@dnaindia.net
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