Bengaluru: Five persons with suspected terror links were arrested by the Bengaluru city police on Wednesday as the head of the law enforcement authority said they had ‘prevented’ a possible ‘subversive activity’.
The five accused have been identified as Zahid, Suhail, Faisal, Mudasir, and Umar, according to the police.
“Based on credible information, the Bengaluru city crime branch has been successful in preempting and preventing a possible subversive activity in the city, and we have arrested five in this connection from whom we have been able to recover or seize seven country-made pistols, 45 live rounds, walkie talkies sets, a dagger, and 12 mobiles,” B Dayananada, the Bengaluru city police commissioner told reporters during a press briefing.
The police added that there was a sixth person who is currently at large and suspected to have fled the country. The suspects were also linked to a 2017 murder case in Bengaluru’s RT Nagar police station and had encountered another individual with terror connections while in jail.
Nazeer was one of the key Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) operatives apprehended sometime in 2009 from the Indo-Bangladesh border and was arrested for his role in the 2008 Bengaluru serial blasts, which left one person dead.
The investigation into the 2008 Bengaluru blasts also led to arrests in Kerala and other parts of the country.
According to Dayananda, the five arrested suspects were radicalised by Nazeer.
“When they (the five arrested on Wednesday) were inside jail as under trial prisoners regarding this case, they came in contact with T Nazeer, one of the main accused in the 2008 serial blast case …T Nazeer seems to have radicalized these individuals,” the commissioner said.
He added that Nazeer had a deep influence on the suspect who is currently absconding.
The Bengaluru police believe that the person absconding was the one who supplied all the weapons and equipment for the alleged ‘subversive activity’.
Notably, in November last year, a pressure cooker bomb exploded in an autorickshaw in Mangaluru, while in February, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) carried out raids in Kerala, Karnataka, and Tamil Nadu, resulting in the seizure of numerous digital devices and cash worth Rs 4 lakh, linked to the blasts in the two southern states.
In another incident from last year, on October 23, a car carrying explosives detonated in front of the Kottai Eswaran Temple in Tamil Nadu’s Coimbatore district. The Maruti 800 car, in which an LPG cylinder exploded, allegedly belonged to Jamesha Mubeen, a 29-year-old engineering graduate, who was in the vehicle at the time of the blast and was the only one killed in the incident.
Weeks later, on November 19, 2022, an auto-rickshaw exploded in Mangaluru, injuring passenger Mohammed Shariq and the auto-rickshaw driver, Purushottam Poojari. Shariq allegedly carried a pressure cooker bomb made from an Improvised Explosive Device (IED), resulting in the explosion.
Investigations in both cases have raised suspicions about Mubeen and Shariq’s ties to ISIS.
The political tug of war
The arrests have triggered a war of words between the ruling Congress government in Karnataka and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Former CM Basavaraj Bommai said that the crime and criminal activities had seen an uptick in the last month or so to take a dig at the Congress government.
“Cases should be filed against the terrorists immediately and it should be handed to the NIA,” Bommai said.
Priyank Kharge, Karnataka’s minister for IT/BT, Rural Development & Panchayat Raj Wednesday told reporters that the Bengaluru police were efficient enough to handle the case.
“If at all the investigation needs national help, has international connections, then we will see about seeking centre’s help. But as of now we have an efficient policing system, have mechanisms to deal with terror..we’ll do that. why is BJP always in a hurry, they don’t trust the same very officers they had a month back,” he said.
The BJP has hit back on this comment as Bengaluru South Member of Parliament, Tejasvi Surya, said that handing over the case to the central agencies was not a “matter of choice”.
“ Sri @PriyankKharge must understand that to involve or not involve the central agencies in the investigation of terrorists arrest case in Bengaluru is not a matter of choice. The moment an FIR is registered under UAPA, the jurisdiction of NIA commences. From a party that dropped cases against PFI in their earlier Govt, the state can’t expect free and fair investigation,” Surya said in a post on twitter.
Sri @PriyankKharge must understand that to involve or not involve the central agencies in the investigation of terrorists arrest case in Bengaluru is not a matter of choice.
The moment an FIR is registered under UAPA, the jurisdiction of NIA commences.
From a party that… https://t.co/ekkVjHaFso
— Tejasvi Surya (@Tejasvi_Surya) July 19, 2023
Also read: 2 terror suspects wanted by NIA held in Pune, remanded in police custody till July 25