TN police on high alert after ISIS operative held in Salem

CHENNAI: The Tamil Nadu state Intelligence Department and police's elite 'Q' Branch are on high alert after the Intelligence Bureau apprehended an alleged ISIS operative from Salem on Sunday.

The arrested, identified as Ashik, was working in an anklet-making unit of his relative. The Intelligence Bureau picked him on Saturday morning, quizzed him for 10 hours and then handed him over to the police. He was produced before a court early on Sunday.

Police claimed that Ashik was in touch with IS operatives for the past year and would likely have become a "lone wolf" attacker.

With the arrest of Ashik and unearthing of the contacts he had maintained with the IS operatives from across the sea, the state intelligence and the 'Q' Branch have jointly stepped up the probe in the state.

The 'Q' branch has already prepared a dossier of several suspected Islamist elements who were drawn from the earlier days of Al Ummah of Basha, and the PDP of Abdul Nasser Madni. The state intelligence is monitoring the movements of these former extremist elements along with the National Investigation Agency sleuths.

As the 75th Independence Day celebrations are only a couple of weeks away, the police have stepped up checking in all the railway stations, bus stations, and even airports.

Sources in the Tamil Nadu Police told IANS that the state Home Department is keen that the state is not used for any nefarious activities and has given a free hand to the police to act against any such elements. Chief Minister M.K. Stalin, according to Home Department sources, is pitching for a trillion dollar economy for the state and does not want any untoward incidents happen that disturb the tranquility of the state.

Sources in the police told IANS that the state intelligence is working closely with the Intelligence Bureau to bust any terror module in the state.