The Hindu : Kerala / Thiruvananthapuram News : Trekkers’ paradise earns notoriety

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Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram

Trekkers’ paradise earns notoriety

G. Anand

Of those young men who seemingly holidayed at Wagamon, and a terror plot

State police came to know of it in June
Case registered under Arms Act

Thiruvananthapuram: The cleric of the famed “kabar” at the Thangalpara Muslim centre near the Wagamon hill station in Idukki district should be a relieved man today.

On a misty evening in December 2007, he denied accommodation to a group of youngsters who sought shelter in the place of worship.

The group set up a temporary camp in the lush wilderness of Wagamon, a trekker’s paradise 1,100 m above sea level, and spent two days trekking, rock-climbing and swimming.

The Gujarat police on Saturday said that some among them were hardline Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) activists responsible for the July 26 serial blasts in Ahmedabad. They had been planning the blasts since 2005 and the Wagamon meeting was part of the conspiracy. More than 45 persons were killed and over 70 injured in the city centre explosions.

The State police intelligence came to know of the meeting in June 2008. They sent investigators posing as journalists covering tourism-related activities. The intelligence men spotted a lone eatery with an STD phone booth near far-flung Thangalpara, nearly 2 km uphill from Wagamon.

The owner clearly remembered the group of “30 young men.” She said some of them conversed in English and Hindi and that they made several calls, mostly to local numbers, from the telephone booth.

Local people told intelligence men that they heard gun shots (sounding as those from crude muzzle-loading weapons) at night from the area where the group camped.

Some people living in the fringes of the forest are known to hunt for wild buffaloes and deer at night. So, the locals did not give much thought to the sound. The police now suspect that the SIMI men trained with firearms in the forest.

Intelligence people showed their local sources photographs of 18 SIMI activists arrested while holding a meeting at Happy Auditorium at Benanipuram in Ernakulam rural district in 2006. (The police are yet to charge-sheet the case: crime number 159/2006-Benanipuram PS).

The local people identified Shibili and his brother Shaduli from the photographs. The suspected SIMI activists (from Irattupettah in Idukki) were arrested by the Indore police this year on the charge of possessing fire arms.

Intelligence sources said that Safdar Nagori, alleged secretary of SIMI, could have visited Wagamon during the annual pilgrim season at Thangalpara. On the basis of their report, the Mundakayam police registered a case under the Arms Act and Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act on June 19, 2008.

Para-gliders and rock climbers often camp in Wagamon. Camp tents pitched in the wilderness rarely evoke curiosity in local dwellers, who are mostly tea-estate workers. The police are now stressing the need to better monitor those who enter Kerala’s forests.

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