TN busts terror cell

After Bangalore and Ahmedabad, Chennai could have almost witnessed blasts in the heart of the city, had alert Tamil Nadu intelligence officials not busted a terror module. The breakthrough has come as a reassurance to people in the state, who have been in panic mode since the serial explosions in two other cities.

It was a big catch for Tamil Nadu`s intelligence wing. The arrest of 39 year old Abdul Gafoor in Tirunelveli, has revealed a plot to plant bombs at one of Chennai`s most prominent landmarks, the Gemini flyover. The city`s arterial roads converge at this junction, which is also right next to the American Consulate.

The conspiracy was hatched at the Puzhal prison on the outskirts of Chennai by a hard-core Jihadi inmate Ali Abdullah. Trained in Pakistan in 1997 to assemble improvised explosive devices, Abdullah has been in jail from 2003 for causing eight explosions on trains in Tamil Nadu and murdering an Imam in Chennai.

When NDTV asked Tamil Nadu DGP K P Jain whether two members of the Toufeeq gang who had plotted to plant bombs in Chennai a few months ago, have been arrested in Chennai he replied that the police had detained them earlier as well, and let them off and now they are being interrogated again.

When the DGP was further asked as to what dreaded extremist Abdul Gafoor confessed so far he replied that the police have so far recovered timer devices and equipment to make IEDs. Those were meant to be used at the Tirunelveli Collectorate and the Gemini flyover in Chennai.

For the next few days, the police will have to grapple with unusual crowds at various places. Shopping malls are offering special discount sales coinciding with the inauspicious Aadi month.

Movie theatres where superstar Rajinikanth`s film `Kuselan` is to be released on Friday are already full. And at income tax offices there are long queues to file returns. But the heavy police presence has put many at ease. “The police is monitoring all the places carefully. It`s reassuring,” said an onlooker.

What has also sent a shiver down the spines of people in Chennai is that Abdul Gafoor, the man arrested in Tirunelveli, used to work at a shop in Chennai`s ever-crowded Ranganathan Street.

The dreaded extremist Toufeeq who had plotted to plant bombs in Chennai a few months ago is still at large, but the police has zeroed in on two of his associates in the city.

The leave of all policemen in the state has been cancelled and over the next few weeks, they will have sleepless nights.

NDTV