The recently unearthed terror module plotting bomb attacks on key installations in Tamil Nadu has no direct link with banned outfits such as the SIMI and LeT.
CHENNAI: The recently unearthed terror module plotting bomb attacks on key installations in Tamil Nadu has no direct link with banned outfits such as the Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) and Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), police said here on Thursday.
"This specific module has no direct links with such groups," Intelligence IG Jaffer Sait told reporters here replying to queries but declined to disclose further details as the investigation was on.
To a question whether sleeper cells of SIMI or other terrorist networks existed in the state, he said: "As of now, there is no information, but investigation is on in this direction also."
Police teams had gone to Ahmedabad and Hyderabad to study the pattern of the serial explosions in those cities, he said.
The state police had on Sunday last claimed to have averted a major tragedy by busting a terror module that had planned to carry out explosions in Chennai and Tirunelveli.
Three persons, including the `mastermind' of the module lodged in the Puzhal prison, have been arrested.
Abdul Gafur, an employee in a footwear firm in Chennai, revealed the conspiracy after he was arrested from Pettai in Tirunelveli, following which Heera alias Mohammed Kasim and Ali Abdullah, the `mastermind', who hatched the conspiracy even as he is lodged in the Puzhal jail, were held.
As police raided his cell, Abdullah chewed two SIM cards in an apparent attempt to destroy vital leads. This led to speculations that the undertrial, facing murder and bomb attack cases, had stayed in touch with his associates.
The group had planned to target important places in Chennai and Tirunleveli before August 15.
Police recovered 21 different accessories used for making Improvised Explosive Device (IED) from Gafur during his arrest and later unearthed 1 kg of IED from Pandikoil in Madurai based on information provided by him.
Police had also detained an electrician Badsha for supplying accessories to Gafur. However, he was later let off as "he was not part of the conspiracy."
When asked about prisoners having access to mobile phones and SIM cards, Sait said Special Vigilance Cells have been formed in prisons to prevent the communication gadgets from being sneaked into jails.
On recent reports that five Muslim youths had gone missing from the state and on apprehensions that they could have joined some banned organisation, he said they had gone to meet an Imam (Muslim cleric) in Orissa.
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