JK police to seek custody of LeT operative Nazir

The Jammu and Kashmir police will soon send a team to Bengaluru to seek custody of Tadiyantavide Nazir, the alleged mastermind of Indian Mujahideen terror outfit, who is believed to be behind an exfiltration bid by four Keralites through Kupwara last year.

Nazir, currently in custody of the Bangaluru police, is understood to have claimed the responsibility for last year's serial blasts in the city, which killed two persons. He is wanted by the JK police to understand the exact number of youths who had managed to exfiltrate from the state, official sources said.

He is alleged to have recruited dozens of youth from Kerala and sent them for terror training to Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, using the exfiltration routes in the state.

His name surfaced last year when the state police shot dead four Kerala residents, who were training with a Lashkar-e-Tayiba unit in Kupwara district, in northern Kashmir. He was also in constant touch with Indian Mujahideen commander Riyaz Shahbandri, who is also known as Riyaz Bhatkal.

A senior police official from the state said Nazir's custodial interrogation was necessary as this would help the police ascertain the number of youth and the name of people who had helped him in the state.

Nazir, who was arrested along the India-Bangladesh border on December 2 by the Border Security Force and handed over to the Meghalaya police, before the Bengaluru police got his custody, has emerged as a prize catch for security agencies.

During investigations by the Jammu and Kashmir police, it had come to light that the group that attempted to ex-filtrate to PoK, had received some political help in Kerala to travel to the border state with fake documents.

Nazir is believed to have given some crucial details about his links with leaders of a political party in Kerala. The militant, said to be the head of LeT's south India unit, has told his interrogators that he had been a staunch worker of a political party and received patronage when he had been arrested in Kerala, official sources said.

The information had been shared with the central government for further action, the sources said.