Adimali: An al Qaeda terrorist, Iyakub Biswas, arrested by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) from Ernakulam on Saturday, had reportedly worked at Adimali in Kerala's Idukki district.

The shopkeepers raised doubts after noticing his photos on media reports. Later, Idukki district police chief R Karuppasamy and team confirmed that Biswas had worked at a chapati shop at Ayiramekkar near Adimali.

Details have been handed over to the NIA, the district police chief said.

The shop belonged to Perumbavoor native Ashraf. Biswas worked at the shop from February 2019 to June 3, 2020, according to Ashraf.

However, the local people said that Biswas had worked at this shop till July. In between, Ashraf handed over the shop to an Irunoorekkar native and started another shop at Rajakkad town. However, Biswas continued to work at the shop at Ayiramekkar.

Five other migrant workers were also with Biswas at Ayiramekkar for months. But they left one by one. Claiming to be headed home, Biswas too left in July, the shopkeepers at Ayiramekkar said. And that he did not return.

The chapati shop is currently shut. The police have not received more information on Ashraf's shop at Rajakkad.

The district special branch said that a probe would be initiated against the migrant workers, who returned to Idukki after the lockdown.

Biswas was among the three terrorists arrested by the NIA from Kerala on Saturday. The two others are Murshid Hasan and Mosaraf Hossen. The NIA also arrested six other terrorists from West Bengal as it busted a Pakistan-sponsored al-Qaeda terror module in the country.

Idukki under scanner of central agencies

The central Intelligence wing and the NIA team have carried out investigation in Idukki several times in the past two years.

The probe team had arrived in Nedumkandam and Kerala-Tamil Nadu border regions after February 2020. The NIA officers of the Kochi and Tamil Nadu units too had been to the district several times during the last six months.

The central Intelligence wing officers were in the district to probe about the explosives that were reported missing from Chaturangapara at the Kerala-Tamil Nadu border and about some land deals that took place in 2019.

The central probe agencies collected information from the Intelligence wing officers of the Idukki police and instructed them to step up surveillance in the district.

As many as 800 gelatine sticks and 200 detonators were reported missing from a quarry at Chaturangapara, located within the Udumbanchola station limits, in July 2019. The police had arrested six people in connection with the case.

About half of the stolen materials were found. But the remaining explosives are yet to be traced.