CUDDALORE, OCT. 28. The Cuddalore police claim to have busted a fundamentalist outfit ‘Manitha Neethi Pasarai’ (MNP) located at Nellikuppam `F3 which has been allegedly converting Dalits into Islam and imparting training to them in handling weapons and martial arts.
The police have rounded up 15 persons, including three women - Pashira, Fatima Beevi and Chithira Rahina - and seized from them long sickles, foreign-made daggers, cellphones (one having Arabic names and numerals), audio and video cassettes, an amplifier, a binocular, a camera, digital diaries, incriminating documents and Rs. 85,000 (in the denomination of Rs. 500).
But the masterminds, Khaja Mohideen (45) of Neyveli and Abdul Khani alias Pichaikhani of Keezhakarai have escaped. According to the police sources, the MNP was said to be having a nationwide network and was suspected to have links with the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front of Yasin Malik and acted as a recruiting agency to beef up the terrorist forces in Jammu and Kashmir.
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The MNP, which came into being a few months ago, had well-formulated syllabi and the trainees were indoctrinated with "hate literature" and compact discs showing the demolition of the Babri Masjid at Ayodhya, the Coimbatore serial bomb blasts, the Godhra carnage and the Gujarat riots. The MNP received foreign funding, the sources said.
Already, one batch of 40 persons passed out, and a section of the second batch, undergoing training, fell into the police net. The MNP was part of an institution, "Arivagam" at Muthudevanpatti in Theni district, and had contacts with the Tamil Nadu Development Foundation Trust at Periyapet in Chennai. While the former was training cadres in combat tactics, the latter was teaching the tenets of Islam to the converts, the sources said.
After preliminary training at Nellikuppam, advanced training would be given at Muthudevanpatti and Ernakulam before the cadres were despatched to Kashmir. The MNP, suspected to be a resurrection of the proscribed Students Islamic Movement of India, was having nexus some other outfits also.
The Deputy Inspector-General of Police, Sanjay Arora, told presspersons here today that the MNP had a militant orientation and there was prima facie evidence of its running a training camp. But no explosives were found there, he said.
The Cuddalore Superintendent of Police, K. Prem Kumar, said the National Security Act would be invoked against the arrested. The MNP came to light when the police probed a gang attack on Arokiyaraj of Thirukkulam who prevented the kidnap of his friend, Sirajudeen’s daughter by one Osai Mani alias Sultan with the help of Vidiyal Velli, another MNP wing.
The Hindu
