LeT operative Nazeer's aide held in Kerala

A close aide of T. Nazeer, the south India chief of the terrorist outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba has been caught and has confessed responsibility to the bus stand bombing in Kozhikode in 2006.

A close aide of T. Nazeer, the self-styled south India chief of terror outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), has been caught and has confessed to have planted bombs at bus stands in Kozhikode in 2006, police sources said on Tuesday.

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Nazeer's aide, identified as Yusuf, was picked up by the police from his house in Malapurram district in north Kerala a few days ago and will soon be produced before a court near the place, sources said.

Nazeer, the alleged mastermind of the 2005 Bangalore blast, is now in the custody of the Karnataka police after he was picked up near the India-Bangladesh border early this month.

Police sources said Yusuf has confessed to planting the bombs at two bus stands in Kozhikode in early 2006.

He is also the eighth witness in the 2005 Kalamessery bus burning case, in which People's Democratic Party (PDP) chief Abdul Nazir Maudany's wife Sufiya is also among the suspects. Sufiya was released from jail last week.

According to the police, Yusuf admitted to having close links with Nazeer and said he had been trained in terror tactics in Hyderabad.

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has begun a re-investigation into the twin bomb blastS at Kozhikode. Last week, it also decided to take up the bus burning case.

The NIA is expected to seek Yusuf's custody, the sources said.