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Karnataka, AP police teams to assist Kerala in blast probe

July 14, 2009 11:55 IST

The Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh police are sending special investigation teams to Kerala to assist the ongoing probe into the blast that rocked the Ernakulam district collectorate on July 10.

The police teams from Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, which have witnessed terror attacks in the past, will share their expertise with the Kerala police. Central intelligence agencies suspect that some Kerala-based activists of the banned Students Islamic Movement of India might have been involved in planning and carrying out the blast, which had injured one person.

According to sources, the state police has already apprehended several SIMI activists in connection to the blast.

Shibili, a senior SIMI leader who is currently in judicial custody, is allegedly the mastermind behind the Hyderabad blasts and the organiser of the training camp at Panayikulam in Aluva on August 15, 2006.

Investigations have revealed that the camp acted as a brainstorming session to plan terror strikes across the country. Several SIMI activists, who had been apprehended by the state police, had revealed that they got the relevant information and material for the terror strikes during the session at Panayikulam.

Though the Kerala police had initially dismissed the explosion as a prank to create panic, it has now acknowledged that it was a meticulously planned blast. The state police is now  probing the various phone calls made by some suspects, immediately before the blast, near the collectorate.

The police are also not ruling out the possible involvement of international elements in the blast. Investigators are also trying to trace sleeper cells of the SIMI which have provided both manpower and resources for all the major operations of the banned organisation.

Incidentally, the Kerala police has come under severe criticism over its lax attitude in spite of several warnings about the possibility of a terror strike in the state, issued by the central intelligence agencies.

Arun Lakshman in Thiruvananthapuram