Kozhikode: Surveillance has been stepped up in north Kerala following bomb blasts at Malegaon in Maharashtra on Friday.

Senior police officials said here on Sunday that security had been beefed up in districts bordering Tamil Nadu and Karnataka to prevent coordination of inter-State extremists groups.

Kozhikode had been put on general alert following the blasts since it has some of the most communally sensitive regions in north Kerala.

Marad and Nadapuram were in the list of such hotspots, senior officials said.

The city had witnessed three explosions in the recent past. The serial blasts in Mumbai and the arrest of a Kozhikode native for allegedly planning to explode bombs in Coimbatore added to the fear, the police said.

The police and intelligence agencies are monitoring key installations, religious institutions and places of worship in the city. The dog and bomb squads searched railway and bus stations and markets for explosives. Luggage of people arousing suspicion is being checked.

Checks at lodges

Passengers alighting at the Kozhikode Railway Station are being monitored.

Surprise checks are being conducted in lodges in and around the city. Police stations have been directed to collect names of those staying in the lodges in their respective jurisdictions.

Hotel managers have been asked to inform the police about those arousing suspicion and groups checking in at their places.

Coastal areas of north Kerala are under the scanner of intelligence agencies.

The Malegaon blasts may have been masterminded to create communal disturbances in other places in the country as well, the police said.

Intelligence agencies suspect that extremist organisations in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka are associating with several fundamentalists groups in the State. They believe that the banned Students' Islamic Movement of India and the Islamic Sevak Sangh have re-emerged with new names.

Some of their activists have infiltrated other organisations. Instructions have been issued to monitor the activities of these organisations, officials said.

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