Mangaluru blast suspect influenced by global terror outfit, says ADGP

MANGALURU: The suspect in the low-intensity blast which occurred in Mangaluru on Saturday evening was highly influenced by global terrorist organisations, Additional Director General of Police (ADGP) Alok Kumar said here on Monday.

Addressing a press conference, he said Shariq came alone from Mysuru to Mangaluru, but so far there is no evidence to establish an link to the Coimbatore blast, he said. “We are in touch with Tamil Nadu police and some of their officers are already here. We will investigate if there are any links between the two incidents”, he said.

Further, he said, “We have searched the houses of Arafat Ali and Mateen and questioned their family members. But we have not been able to identify who was funding Shariq. He had some fake identity papers in his Mysuru room and was out on conditional bail in the Mangalurugraffiti case. But it’s not possible to keep a track of such people using GPS”, he said. The officer added that Arafat Ali, the third accused in the Mangaluru graffiti case, was Shariq’s handler.

ADGP Alok Kumar addressing a press conference in Mangaluru on Monday.

“Shariq’s sister Rafiya is married to a person from Shikaripur and we are looking into the financial details. Three people have been arrested from Mysuru, but there is no information about their involvement in the case. We also do not know if Maaz Muneer is involved, as he is already in jail. But they had carried out trial blasts earlier”, the ADGP pointed out.

Alok Kumar said the suspect Shariq had assembled the IED partly as he was not an expert at it. He was working at a mobile store in Mysuru and had stocked potassium nitrate, sodium, ammonium and other explosive material. He bought some of the materals online and some from shops. He also obtained a SIM card using the Aadhaar card of a person from Coimbatore.

“We have taken four people into custody so far. While three are already with us, the fourth is being brought from Udhagamandalam. The state police are conducting the probe independently, but we are also in touch with central agencies”, he noted.

The officer also said, “Shariq had an Aadhaar card with the name Prem Raj which had a Hubballi address. I had called up Prem Raj, who was in Tumakuru and told him to meet the local police”.