Kendrapara, July 2: Alleged Al Qaeda in the Indian Sub-continent (AQIS) operative Mohammad Abdur Rehman was in constant touch with his terror counterparts in Pakistan before being nabbed from Cuttack on December 19 last year.

Rehman, who is at present on remand with the state Crime Branch, has revealed during interrogation that he had visited the port city of Karachi in Pakistan on four occasions in 2014 and 2015. Senior crime branch officials interrogating Rehman told The Telegraph that he had also visited Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia, with the help of a contact in Pakistan.

Rehman, who worked as a cleric, had tried to motivate youths from Odisha to join AQIS but failed. "We have so far questioned clerics from more than a dozen of madrasas in Kendrapara and Jajpur districts to ascertain possible incriminating links of Rehman," said a crime branch official. The source of funding of Jamia Ashrafful Ullam Madrasa in Kendrapara, where Rehman had completed early education, has come under the scanner. The enrolment registers and bank accounts details of the madrasa have been seized, said officials.

The sleuths investigating the links of the arrested terror operative have quizzed people involved in the management of some madrasas. "We are investigating whether the institutions were involved in any anti-national activities. Rehman studied at Jamia Ashrafful Ullam Madrasa in Kendrapara during the 1990s before leaving for higher Islamic studies," sad a senior official of the crime branch.

Madrasas located in Kendrapara, Salipur, Raisunguda, Chandikhole, Badchana, Brahmabarada and other places have come under the scanner of crime branch. Rehman used to frequently visit the madrasas in undivided Cuttack district. He often delivered Islamic discourses at madrasas.

Rehman, in his role as a cleric, solemnized nikkah (wedding) at several paces in undivided Cuttack district. He was much in demand as a kazi (cleric who performs nikkah). A month before his arrest, he had solemnised two weddings in Aul of Kendrapara district.

Rehman was found to have visited nearly 50 madrasas in Jajpur and Kendrapara districts. All of these madrasas are residential institutions with roll strength of nearly 6,500 students. All are privately run institutions without any government support. The crime branch officials are looking into the source of funding of these institutions.

Mohammad Farooq Qasim, principal of Jamia Ashrafful Ullam Madrasa, said: "The investigators inquired regarding Rehman. We cooperated with them. He studied here. He was brilliant in academics. He was obedient and disciplined. We never thought that he would turn radical. It has upset us."