Thiruvananthapuram: A Sri Lankan national, who did not posses a passport or visa, was arrested by the police from the Thampanoor KSRTC Terminal.
Locals had alerted cops after they heard Maluk Juth Milkan Dias, 30, speak over phone in Sinhalese.
The development assumes significance as it happened just two days after Sri Lankan Army Chief Lieutenant General Mahesh Senanayake said perpetrators of Easter day blasts had visited Kerala.
Maluk first told police an airport employee had his documents. An inquiry with the employee revealed it was false. He had a Nargercoil-Varkala train ticket.
Police believe he might have come to Tamil Nadu by boat and got down at Thiruvananthapuram thinking it was Varkala. The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has been intimated.
Terror suspects visited Kerala
Lieutenant General Mahesh Senanayake, Commander of the Sri Lankan Army, had told the BBC TV Channel that the Easter day attack suspects had international links and even visited Kerala, Bangalore and Kashmir in India.
The revelation came days after the raids by the NIA, which exposed links between the conspirators of the Easter Sunday blasts in Sri Lanka and a few Indians.
Kerala police chief DGP Loknath Behera had said on Saturday that it was the NIA which should react to the Lankan army chief's revelations. “It is the NIA which investigates cases that have international connections. The Kerala Police cannot reveal much information about such cases. That is not the right procedure. The possibility of people from other countries visiting Kerala cannot be ignored as it is a popular tourist destination,” DGP said.
The NIA has obtained evidence that Riyaz Aboobacker, who was arrested from Kerala's Palakkad, was interested in the speeches of Zahran Hashim, the main conspirator of the Sri Lankan blasts and the leader of the National Thowheed Jamath.
Riyaz had also shared these speeches on social media and NIA reportedly has evidence on this.
The NIA officials have also found that the persons in its custody had links with the IS recruitment that took place in Kerala's Kasaragod.
Sri Lankan media too had reported earlier that Hashim had visited Kerala on several occasions.
The renowned Sri Lankan English daily, ‘Daily Mirror’ had reported soon after the blasts on April 21 that Islamic fanatic Hashim made routine trips to Kerala and Tamil Nadu states of India. He had come to Panayikkulam, near Aluva, and to Malappuram – both in Kerala – where he reportedly made incendiary speeches, the daily reported.
Senanayake also claimed the terrorists were probably imparting training to like-minded individuals in Kerala and Kashmir, both at the southern and northern extremities of India.
When asked how were they involved in these two Indian regions, the Commander said "definitely in some sorts of training or to make some more links with other organisations outside the country."
Middle East-based global terror outfit Islamic State (IS) has claimed responsibility for the Sri Lankan terror attacks that killed around 300 people in churches and hotels in Colombo and elsewhere on Easter Day.
