Terror links: Kerala ATS finally questions Madhani

Thiruvananthapuram: The Anti-Terror Squad of the Kerala Police on Wednesday questioned People’s Democratic Party chairman Abdul Nazer Madhani for several hours. Madhani had supported the CPI(M), which handles the Home Department in the state Cabinet, in the just concluded elections. Though Madhani’s links with suspected LeT militants had come to the fore during the campaigning, the Left Government was reluctant to probe his role as it was banking on the PDP voters to see it through. According to sources, the police grilled Madhani based on the confessions of Sarfras Nawas and Sainudheen, who had been arrested in connection with the Bangalore blasts. Nawas had told the Karnataka Police that he had met Madhani in his residence at Kollam a few months after the PDP leader was released from Coimbatore jail, where he had been housed as an undertrial in the Coimbatore blast case. Nawas, suspected to be the financier of the terror recruitment in Kerala, was accompanied by Abdul Raheem, who had been killed in Kashmir last October. Madhani had also faced charges for harbouring the daughter of Sainudheen alias Sathar Bhai, a close aid of Riyas Bhatkal, founder of Indian Mujahideen. Yoosaf, who had been converted to Islam by Madhani, had deposed before the police that Sainudheen had been a frequent visitor to the PDP leader’s house in Kochi. He also told the police that Madhani’s wife Soofiya had conducted jehadi classes in a building near their house.
Besides, several other PDP activists, who had been arrested after Kerala’s terror links with the Valley was exposed, had given statements to the police about their associations with Madhani. Some of the absconding leaders of the state terror network were also Madhani’s aides in the past. In the thick of allegations, Madhani had denied the charges and claimed he was ready to face any investigation in this regard. He had been confident that the Kerala Police would not disturb him, while he feared the Karnataka Police would not be that accommodating.
Last week, the Kerala Police had brought Nawas from Karnataka, making Madhani’s questioning inevitable. Sources said they would also question Soofiya who had allegedly been part of the conspiracy behind the torching of a Tamil Nadu bus in 2005, to exert pressure on the TN Government to release Madhani.