Additional Director General of Police (Law & Order) Shankar Mahadev Bidari told Deccan Herald that police do not have any concrete evidence yet to prove that the arrested persons had links with terrorists.

Another officer who did not wish to be quoted, said the two persons had not disclosed any plan to blow up the Hubli Airport.

Stating that “investigations were on”, the police, however, said that they were verifying the confession of terror suspect Rasiuddin Nasar (22) alias  Mohammad Ghouse of Hyderabad that he had  undergone training in Pakistan. 

A team of police officers from Andhra Pradesh has arrived to assist the Karnataka police in the interrogation.

Radical leanings

However, police sources said that Ghouse’s accomplice, Asadullah Abubakar,  a final year BAMS student of Hubli Mahavidyalaya Peetha, reportedly confessed to his Islamic fundamentalist leanings.

Asadullah said that he didn’t attend college regularly but frequented a mosque. Somewhere during his stay in Hubli, he got in touch with Ghouse, who had reportedly run away from his hometown to escape police after his name figured in the Mecca blast suspects list.

The duo reportedly told the police that they visited Goa, Belgaum, Sadashivgadh, Mangalore, Udupi, Agumbe and Shimoga to steal two-wheelers, each time they had a financial crunch.

However, the police are trying to ascertain why didn’t Nasar and Asadullah sell the stolen vehicles.

Given their background, the police, however, do not rule out the fact that they might have kept the vehicles to use them as vehicle bombs.

“They stole a bag at Calangute beach, which contained some US dollars, CDs and road maps etc,” said the sources.

“We have some information that Ghouse’s brother reportedly has links with the banned Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI). He had pasted inflammatory posters against Babri Masjid demolition in some sensitive places in Hyderabad,” they added.

The police however, continue to maintain that the identity of the two needs to be verified and information, cross checked.

The Hubli police later picked up Mohammad Asif, a final year MBBS student from KIMS, Hubli. Asif had links with Asadullah. However, Asif has been released after interrogation.

On January 9 last, Honnali police beat constables K S Talwar, A Murugesh and A K Chandrappa during their rounds found Nasar and Asadullah at Kadukatte Cross between Honnali and Nyamathi on a two-wheeler. The policemen stopped them and found a dagger, three US dollars, road maps, fake ID cards, SIM cards and Islamic literature on their person.

The constables got suspicious and interrogated the duo. Nasar and Asadullah confessed that they stole four two-wheelers from Hospet, Hubli and Dharwad.