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Five Al Umma activists detained under NSA

Five fundamentalists belonging to the banned Al Umma, arrested from a hideout in Madras on March 17, were detained under the National Security Act today.

The activists, all in the age group of 19 to 22, were arrested in their hideout in Kodambakkam, when they assembled there to chalk out a plan to explode bombs in the city on March 19, the day the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government assumed office at the Centre. The police had also seized huge quantities of explosives from the hideout.

Their detention under the NSA was necessary as their release on bail would be against the interest of national security and maintenance of peace, a police statement said.

The activists -- Basheer, Abudahim, Serfuddin, Shamsuduin and Jafer Ali -- were lodged in the Vellore central prison.

Hariff Begum, Jafer Ali's wife who was also arrested from the Kodambakkam hideout, however, continued to be in judicial custody, the police said.

UNI

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