india

Updated: Aug 24, 2019 23:33 IST

The Kerala police on Saturday arrested a terror suspect from Kochi, a senior official said adding that he was one of the six suspected terrorists who reportedly entered the country to create trouble in South India. Earlier, intelligence agencies had released his name and other details saying he was suspected to be the local handler of the team.

However, counsel for Abdul Khadar Rahim said he was taken away from the court when he came to surrender before the magistrate. A woman accomplice of Rahim was also arrested. Later, a team from the National Investigation Agency questioned him. He is likely to be handed over to the Tamil Nadu police, investigating the latest terror threat in South India.

The senior official, who did not want to be identified, said he was forced to surrender after the police closed in on him. Before his arrest he told a news channel that he was implicated by a business lobby in Bahrain and he has no connection with any terror outfit. He said the woman who was arrested with him was rescued from an illegal detention centre and his passport and other details were leaked out to intelligence outfits in retaliation. The police said there were many loopholes in his revelations.

Both states, Kerala and Tamil Nadu, were on high alert for the last three days in view of intelligence reports that six Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorists including one from Pakistan and a native of Kerala entered the Tamil Nadu coast through the sea. Agencies had later identified the Kerala man as Abdul Khadar Rahim, a native of Thrissur, who was missing from the state for more than two years. He told the police that he came to Kerala two days back from Bahrain. The high alert is continuing in many parts of the state in view of intelligence reports.