Kochi, Oct 1 (IANS): An NIA special court here Tuesday held 13 people guilty in a case related to recruitment of Kerala youth for terror camps in Kashmir.

National Investigation Agency Special Judge S. Vijayakumar, in a special proceeding a day after his retirement, convicted T. Nazeer, a self-styled south India chief of terror group Lashkar-e-Taiba, and 12 others.

Acquitting five accused, the court said it would announce the quantum of sentence against the convicts Friday.

The case came to light in 2008 when four Kerala youth were shot dead by security forces in gun battle Kashmir.

Nazeer was arrested in 2009 close to the India-Bangladesh border in Meghalaya, police said.

He is already serving a life sentence in the 2006 Kozhikode twin bomb blasts in which there was no casualty.

The judge retired from service Monday but was allowed to pronounce the verdict as the NIA provisions permit the presiding officer who hears a case to deliver the judgment even after retirement.

The case was first registered by Kerala Police in Kannur and the NIA took it up in February 2011.