Kerala Home Minister Kodiyeri Balakrishnan on Wednesday told the state Assembly that the suspected militants from the state were recruited by Hyderabad-based religious group Noorisha Tareekath. He was replying to an adjournment motion moved by Opposition member Aryadan Muhammed, who alleged that the state has become a safe haven for terrorists.Kodiyeri said the state intelligence has made remarkable achievement in detecting the terror-related activities in Kerala based on information from mobile phone conversations that the deceased made prior to the encounter in Kashmir in which four suspected militants from Kerala in Kashmir were killed. Eight persons from the state have so far arrested been by the Anti-Terror Squad as part of subsequent investigations.Though Noorisha Tareekath has no presence in Kerala, the investigation team was probing whether it has any sympathisers in the state or if anybody was abetting the outfit, he said. He rejected the Opposition charge that extremist movement has gained momentum in the 30-month LDF rule and said Kerala was free of any type of terrorist incidents in this period.The minister made it clear that the LDF Government would deal sternly with both Muslim and Hindu terror networks in Kerala and said the situation in the state was not serious or scary, as termed by UDF members. The Opposition later staged a walkout, charging the Government with failing to handle terrorist elements. (With PTI)
