Did Shariq have links with TN-based terror outfit Base Movement?

MANGALURU: The Tamil Nadu-based Base Movement may be linked to the Mangaluru cooker blast, which occurred in a moving autorickshaw last Saturday, going by the manner in which the IED had been assembled and the materials used by Shariq to carry out the explosion.

Shariq is undergoing treatment at intensive care unit in Father Muller Medical College hospital Mangaluru.

It is suspected that Shariq may have been in touch with some members of the Base Movement and that some of the absconding suspects may have sheltered him in Coimbatore. The Tamil Nadu police are also investigating the possible role of the Base Movement in the Mangaluru incident.

The Al Ummah, which was instrumental in the 1994 Coimbatore blast case, had transformed into the ‘Base Movement’, which owes allegiance to Al Qaeda and has made lower courts in South India its prime target.

Shariq is the main accused in Mangaluru bomb blast case.

In 2015, when Siddaramaiah was Chief Minister, the Base Movement had issued a threat letter which was traced to Singanallur in Coimbatore district. In 2016, it had targeted lower courts at Mysuru in Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh where low-intensity blasts were carried out.

The Al Ummah was set up in 1993 in Tamil Nadu after the Babri Masjid demolition. In 2016, five people belonging to the Base Movement had been arrested in a serial blast case.