Cops gather vital clues from IM suspects

The interrogation of the four suspected Indian Mujahideen (IM) operatives, arrested by the Bengaluru police, is said to have provided vital clues about several blasts that rocked the country after 2010.

Investigators believe that the four men from the coastal town of Bhatkal in Uttara Kannada district played a key role in supplying explosives to those who executed the blasts at many metros in the country since 2010. The explosives used in these blasts were suspected to have been manufactured in Bhatkal, which has been the hub of terror activities ever since the Indian Mujahideen was founded.

“The arrests of four suspected ultras will fill the missing links in the investigation of various terror cases across the country. The interrogation of the accused is throwing light on the sourcing of explosives in bomb blasts after 2010,” Bengaluru Police Commissioner M N Reddi tweeted on Sunday .

“Since the accused were in contact with foreign handlers this aspect is also being probed,” Reddi said. According to sources, those who were handling the four suspects are in Pakistan and United Arab Emirates. The four men executed the instructions received from their handlers.

Of the four, Syed Ismail Afaq, 34, Saddam Hussein, 35, and Abdus Subur, 24 were arrested on Thursday. On inputs given by them, Riyaz Sayeedi (32) was arrested from Mangalore International Airport late Saturday night and brought to Bengaluru.

According to the sources, the explosives seized in Bhatkal on Thursday indicate that the suspects were in “different stages of making highly sophisticated circuitry explosives.”  The quantity of explosive substances recovered shows that the suspects and their handlers had grand designs to carry out bomb blasts.

The police commissioner had earlier said that some similarities had been found between the explosive substances used in other blasts in the country and materials seized at Bhatkal. “The circuit boards seized in Bhatkal were also used in blasts at Hyderabad and Chennai.

We also suspect explosives used in some terror acts might have been supplied from Karnataka. The investigation is still at the preliminary stage and we still need to find out if the suspects were in touch with other persons in the State or outside,” Reddi said.