Tamil Nadu and adjacent Coimbatore in south India were put on high alert following intelligence inputs by India’s federal security agencies that six Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorists, including one from Pakistan, may have entered Coimbatore, Indian media reports said on Friday. The Tamil Nadu home department sounded the alert after they were tipped off by federal intelligence agencies that terrorists had probably entered the state from neighbouring Sri Lanka for carrying out attacks in Tamil Nadu or Kerala.
“While one terrorist is from Pakistan, five others are from Sri Lanka. They have come here through the sea route,” the reports said quoting police sources. The Pakistani national has been identified as Ilyas Anwar. Authorities in Tamil Nadu and Coimbatore have beefed up security in hotels, airports, malls, railway stations and bus stands.
The National Investigation Agency (NIA) arrested at least 10 men in Tamil Nadu who are suspected to have links with ISIS. One of those arrested after raids at seven locations across Coimbatore was Mohammed Azarudeen, the alleged mastermind of ISIS' Tamil Nadu module, who allegedly had links to the April 22 Easter suicide bomber attacks in Sri Lanka that claimed 250 lives.
The NIA had received the information that the accused and their associates were allegedly propagating ISIS ideology on social media and recruit young people. Cases were registered against Azarudeen and five other men from Coimbatore for planning terror attacks in Tamil Nadu and Kerala.