Two persons, including a Sri Lankan, who allegedly supplied fake Indian currency notes (FICN) to terror suspect Zakir Hussain, a Sri Lankan national, were arrested in Chennai on Thursday night.

Police sources said a special team probing the source of FICN seized from Hussain when he was arrested three days ago on a specific input and apprehended Mohamed Salim, 39, of T. Nagar and Sivabalan, 45, a Sri Lankan national, of Ashok Nagar.

Fake currency notes with a face value of Rs. 2.5 lakh were seized from their premises, The Hindu reports.

The duo confessed to having supplied the FICN to Hussain, but claimed to have no knowledge of his activities in India. A verification of their antecedents revealed that Salim was already arrested in connection with a FICN case while Sivabalan was accused in a narcotics offence.

They allegedly sourced the FICN from Malda in West Bengal.

ISI agent and Lankan national Zakir Hussain was arrested in Chennai on Tuesday when he was reportedly gathering information on diplomatic missions in the country.
 
Rohan Gunaratna, who heads the International Centre for Political Violence and Terrorism Research at Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University, said that cells such as Hussain’s have been functioning in Sri Lanka, the Maldives and India, posing a “severe threat” to the entire region.

Gunaratna said that Hussain was planning to attack targets in Lanka and the Maldives as well as India.
 
Lankan police spokesman Ajith Rohana said that the Indian authorities have not yet approached Lanka for help to investigate Hussein’s activities there.
 
Sources said Hussain was assigned to recruit members for Pakistani-based terrorist outfits through networking in the banned outfits operating in the country in order to build a base in Chennai, which would facilitate sabotage missions in the city and at other vital installations.