Bangalore geek faces terrorism charge

A graduate engineer of the Regional Engineering College (REC), Calicut, has been arrested on charges of being a member of a terror network, police said on Friday.

Yahya Iyas Kammukutty, arrested late on Thursday, is the seventh young professional held in Karnataka on similar grounds, marking the emergence of a 'new' face of terror.

Kammukutty, 32, an activist of the banned Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI), was born and educated in Kerala. He worked for two IT companies in Bangalore before he quit. Kammukutty then gave tuitions.

"He's an important link in the (terror) module. We are probing the circumstances under which he left the IT firms. The hard disc of his personal computer has been seized. He will be produced before a Hubli court today," an officer of the Corps of Detectives said.

He said Yahya graduated from REC, Calicut, in 1996 with a degree in Electrical and Communications Technology. "He said he joined SIMI while he was studying engineering in Calicut." The arrest followed information given by another SIMI activist, Mohammad Asif, a medical student arrested in Hubli on January 30.

Among the other young professionals arrested are Mohammed Ghouse, a Lashkar-e-Tayyeba operative from Hyderabad, and Shakeel Mohammed Muli, an electrical contractor who supported SIMI. Four of the seven held are medicos.