The Kerala police have identified the houses in which Indian Mujahideen operatives Zia-ur-Rehman alias Waqas and Tehseen Akhtar took shelter from September to November. Waqas stayed in a homestay facility in New Munnar Colony in Munnar while Tehseen was put up with migrant hotel workers at a house nearby, pretending to be a computer mechanic. Both locations were barely a kilometre away from Munnar town. On being interrogated, the owner of the homestay ‘When will you stay’ told the police that an autorickshaw driver had brought Waqas to the facility and Jameel — a 24-year-old shop-owner — introduced him as his cousin. Waqas would venture out early and return late in the evening, said the owner. He left the facility when the rent was increased from Rs. 6,500. Jameel has gone underground since Waqas’s arrest.
Amid rumours that the arrested terrorists would be brought to the spot to aid in collection of evidence, a top police official in Idukki told The Hindu on Saturday that a special team was probing the “sensitive” matter and the Kerala police had received no information.
