Sultan, considered the then southern India commander of the LeT, is suspected to have played a role in the March 13, 2003, bomb blasts in Mumbai’s Mulund area that killed 12 people and a series of blasts in the city in 2002-2003. He was killed in an encounter in Goregaon with the Andheri Crime Intelligence Unit of the Mumbai police on March 29, 2003.

“When Yahya was questioned in Kerala and Mumbai in 2003 he had stated he was working as an IT professional in Bangalore and did not know anything about the LeT links of Abu Sultan. He said he was merely a tourist guide to Sultan,” sources said.

The sources said Yahya, who was asked to leave the software company of a major multi-national firm two months ago, is suspected to be a close associate of a much wanted and key former SIMI President from Kerala C A M Basheer—considered in security circles as one of the first Indians to receive terrorist training in Pakistan, in the north western frontier province, in the late 1980s.

Basheer, hailing from Aluva in Kerala, is also suspected to have played a role in the March 13, 2003 bomb blasts in Mulund. He is currently believed to be hiding in Saudi Arabia, senior security officials in Karnataka said.

“Yahya made frequent trips to Saudi Arabia. He had just returned a month prior to his arrest from Haj. He could have been meeting Basheer on the visits,” police sources said.

... contd.