Militants from Manipur nabbed in Mysore

Six members of the outlawed People’s United Liberation Front (PULF) of Manipur were nabbed in Mysore when they were holding secret meeting.

A team of policemen from Manipur, which was hot in the trail of these militants, tracked them down in a lodge in Mysore before carrying out a surprise raid on Sunday with the assistance of local police.

Imphal’s Superintendent of Police T H Radheshyam told reporters in Mysore on Monday that the arrested include the top leaders of PULF including its general secretary M I Khan, 43, deputy commander in chief M D Nasir Khan, 38, chief of army Mohammed Noor Zaman, 40, and Publicity Secretary Mohammed Jabbar, 55.

Two others arrested by the police were identified Noor Shariff and Mohammed Mustafa, both “foot soldiers” of PULF.

Radheshyam said PULF was waging a war against the state in the guise of safeguarding interests of Muslims. The arrested members of the organization were wanted in several cases of abduction and extortion, besides murder and hurling of explosives in public places, he said.

The Manipur police produced the arrested PULF members before a court in Mysore and secured their transit remand. “We will be flying them to Imphal from Bangalore via Kolkata. We are awaiting a clearance from Bureau of Civil Aviation to fly them”, Radheshyam said.

However, Karnataka police said preliminary investigations show that the suspected ultras from north east had no plans to carry out any attacks in Karnataka. “The had chosen Mysore as a destination to hold their meeting as they felt it would be safer here than any other place in north east, where they were under constant surveillance”, said Deputy Commissioner of Mysore City Police V S D Souza.