Though Kerala has so far remained free from terrorist strikes, the death of four Keralites in encounters in Jammu and Kashmir in early October has confirmed the fears that militant outfits have strong links in the state getting cadres and support for anti-national operations by extremist outfits in far-flung areas.

The development has jolted the state out of stupor, prompting the police and intelligence agencies to launch a crackdown on networks enrolling and sending youth to join subversive activities in far off Kashmir valley.

The evidence of youth from the state being roped in by militants came to light with the seizure of religious literature in Malayalam from the body of the four youth killed in encounters in Kupwara area in Jammu and Kashmir in early October.

The investigations that followed by Kerala police with the help of authorities in J and K found that two of the dead hailed from Kannur and one each from Malappuram and Kochi.

The subsequent probe and arrests exposed the existence of networks recruiting and sending them as members of the death squads fighting security forces fighting extremists on border areas.

While the LDF Government has maintained that it has always remained alert to extremist threats, the Congress-led opposition has accused it of having remained complacent ignoring warnings by the Central agencies of connections established by terrorist outfits in Kerala, especially in the wake of recent strike in Ahmadabad and Delhi.

Though it is for the first time that the direct involvement of Keralite youths in fighting the Army in border areas came to light, there have been reports that activists of banned outfits like SIMI from the state had been extending ideological and technical support to ultras in other parts of the country.

SIMI presence

Close on the heels of the Ahmedabad blast, the Gujarat police had revealed that SIMI had conducted a training camp near Wagamon, a hill resort in Kottayam district, some 18 months back, where its operatives might have chalked out future plans. Kerala police had held that it was aware of that and the investigations were on.

The latest development have brought under scanner the quasi-political outfit National Development Front (NDF), which has flourished in the state in the last few years luring cadres projecting as the radical champion of marginalized sections among the minority and depressed sections.

The NDF has created a multi-layer network of dedicated and disciplined cadres across the state cutting mainly into the support base of mainstream political parties like Indian Union Muslim League (IUML), which has known for its moderate policies and an active participant in established political order.

Though the LDF Government has ruled out the chances of imposing a ban on NDF, Chief Minister VS Achuthanandan himself has stated that its role is "suspect".

The NDF leaders, however, have refuted the charge against the organisation holding that they are not waging a war on the nation but was opposing the 'majoritarin fascist' forces like the Sangh Parivar which have been gripping its hold the country's polity.

The latest development also exposed the criminal-extremist nexus as some of those enrolled and sent outside for subversive activities were despeadoes with criminal background.