CHENNAI, April 10: Five persons picked up by the police from a house in Kodambakkam on March 17 in connection with the Coimbatore blasts and subsequent threats of bomb explosions in Chennai were on Thursday sent to the Central Prison in Vellore under the National Securities Act (NSA).The five – Shamsuddhin, Abudagir, Jaffer Ali, Basheer and Sarbudeen – were jailed under the NSA to prevent them from engaging in acts detrimental to the security of the country.
They had been picked up along with Arifa Begum, said to be a woman extremist, from the house on Mosque Street in Kodambakkam in a police swoop following a tip-off. The woman has however, not been booked under the NSA.
On interrogation, it came to be known that the arrested persons were activists of the banned Al-Umma group.
Three motorcycle sideboxes (each weighing 15 kg), two handguns, cartridges, detonators and several other items were seized from them. Seizures of gelatine sticks, detonators, bombs and pistols from Pulianthope, Tambaram andArumbakkam followed after their interrogation, police added.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
