In January, Sawad, the main accused in Prof TJ Joseph’s hand amputation case accusing him of blasphemy, was arrested by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) officers from Mattanur in Kannur district. Kerala police could not locate Sawad, who had fled from Aluva on 4 July 2010 when the crime took place.

Sawad, also known as Shajahan to locals, earned a living as a carpenter, was married, and had two children. After cutting off Joseph’s palm and hacking him several times, Sawad spent 13 years in hiding. Popular Front of India (PFI) religious terrorist leaders planned and executed the crime and provided a haven for Sawad.

All these years, Sawad used his phone to contact only these Islamist PFI power centres by phone. There are reports that the NIA’s cyber forensic examination of the phone used by the accused has provided information about those in constant contact. Those who helped Sawad remain in hiding for so long are still roaming free.

Sawad was produced in court and is now in NIA custody. NIA officers are trying to collect more details about those who prepared the hideout for Savad. It is indicated that the arrest process of PFI think tanks will begin after the evidence is gathered.

Sawad was injured by his co-accused when they attacked the Newman College professor. NIA identified Sawad from this wound. The suspect, interrogated ten days earlier, is being grilled again based on additional evidence.

Kerala police could not locate Sawad, who had fled from Odakkali village in Aluva near Ernakulam, where he lived, on 4 July 2010 when the crime took place. That the Islamist terrorist lived comfortably in a communist party heartland does not bode well for ordinary citizens. People in the state are curious as to whether Kerala serves as a terrorist haven.

In March last year, the NIA announced a reward of Rs 10 lakh for those who could help find Sawad. Initially, a reward of 4 lakh rupees was declared, but the amount was increased to 10 lakh when there was no indication. In the hand-chopping terror case of the 54 accused, the trial of the other accused has been completed.

Sawad did not contact his co-accused in the case after the incident. The NIA had intensified its investigation following a tip-off that Sawad had been seen abroad. One of the suspects arrested by Customs in the diplomatic parcel gold smuggling case had also testified that he had met Sawad in Dubai.

Foreign intelligence agency of Bharat, Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) agents had scoured Pakistan and Dubai to find Sawad. The NIA also conducted investigations in Afghanistan, Nepal and Malaysia but to no avail. There were rumours that Sawad had crossed into Syria, but there was no evidence.

In the first phase of the investigation by the crime branch of the Kerala Police, there was an indication that Sawad was taken into custody by the Karnataka Police from Bengaluru. Still, there was no confirmation in this regard later.

Sawad’s close relatives and friends in Kerala assumed that Sawad was with his co-accused, MK Nasar, who had been hiding for a long time in Nepal. Nasar is a National Development Front (NDF) leader who later became a state committee member of the PFI and planned the revenge against Prof Joseph.

NDF was a communal Islamist outfit that was actively involved in the Marad Hindu massacre near Kozhikode and took orders from Pakistan’s ISI spy agency. In 1992, the police busted an eight-member gang that was planning to assassinate Chief Minister E K Nayanar in Kannur. The terrorists fell into the police net while distributing counterfeit currency, believed to be supplied by the ISI, in the state’s Muslim belt.

In 1993, this Muslim extremist group burned down 15 cinema theatres across the Malappuram district. After two prominent front officials were arrested, a crowd of about 300 NDF terrorists surrounded and attacked the Kottakkal police station in the Malappuram district in March 2007. Police repelled the attack, and 27 terrorists were arrested.

The police claimed that the ISI and several Muslim terrorist organisations in Asia provide these Islamic fundamentalist forces with substantial financial donations. NDF cadre engaged in extortion, thefts, killings and gold smuggling through the Kozhikode Karipur International Airport that continues even today. When caught, Islamists claim it is to humiliate the minority community.

NDF merged with other like-minded outfits and formed the PFI. However, after Naser’s surrender, the investigation team did not get information about Sawad, although he was interrogated in detail.

Naser appointed three teams and decided that they should not know each other. He also controlled each team over the phone. They were also given three mobile phones in the name of a Tamilnadu man. The leader of each team was called Amir.

The first team consisted of six people on three motorcycles. Their job was to monitor the professor’s whereabouts and update Naser on the phone. The second group is the seven-member killer group that arrived in an Omni van. A third team was tasked with removing the killers’ vehicles and weapons and destroying evidence.

It was claimed that if Naser is caught, the financial source of the case and the involvement of the top leaders of the PFI will become clear. Even after his surrender and interrogation, details of the terror handlers did not emerge.

Sawad was last seen in July 2010 with his co-accused, Sajil, who was later convicted in the case. Sawad escaped with the axe used to chop Prof Joseph’s hand. The crime branch and the NIA have yet to recover this axe.

Sawad was slightly injured during the attack. Although there is evidence that Sawad had reached Aluva with injuries, the rest of the religious extremist group members also did not know where he moved from there.

In the first phase of the trial, the court convicted 13 out of 31 terrorists and acquitted 18. The NIA took over the case in March 2011, which the Kerala Police initially investigated. The first verdict in the Thodupuzha Newman College professor TJ Joseph’s palm amputation case came 13 years after the incident.

Prof Joseph said that the real culprits are those who planned and called for the violence. Sawad is the first defendant in the legal system as the person who injured him the most. It seems that the investigation of the case has not reached the planners. Unless we catch them, such incidents cannot be eradicated. He added that the occurrences will repeat unless the underlying ideology behind such events changes.

In society, there is no guarantee of peace and harmony even if action is taken against the foot troops of religious terror. For that to happen, their handlers should be brought to book.