Police said Shariq is a sympathizer of the terrorist group ISIS.
Chennai:
A man has been detained in Coimbatore for his alleged links with the main accused in Saturday’s autorickshaw blast in Mangaluru in coastal Karnataka. Police have confirmed the incident as an “act of terror” and are probing the incident with central agencies.
Tamil Nadu Police sources told NDTV that Surendran once stayed in a dormitory with blast accused Shariq and even gave him his Aadhaar card to get a SIM card.
Surendran, a native of Nilgiris, is a physical education teacher in Coimbatore.
An investigating officer told NDTV, “We have questioned him and verified the circumstances under which he lived with her. He appears to be innocent. We have shared the information with the Mangaluru police.”
NDTV has learned that Shariq had visited Coimbatore, Madurai, Nagercoil and Aluva (Kerala) days before Saturday’s blast and received a consignment through Amazon in Kerala. “We are also probing why he took the Madurai-Kanyakumari route to Kerala instead of the Coimbatore to Palakkad route,” Coimbatore Police Chief Mr. V Balakrishnan told NDTV.
Special teams have been formed to probe whether he had met or had links with Jameesha Mubeen, the prime accused in the recent Coimbatore car blast case. Police invoked sections of the stringent anti-terror law UAPA in the Coimbatore car blast after 75 kg of explosive raw material was seized from the residence of Jameja Mubeen, who was killed in the blast.
The police said both were allegedly sympathizers of the terror group ISIS but there was no link to establish that they knew each other.
According to police, Shariq is part of the Aadhaar movement present in some southern states.
An official said, “Shariq was not on our radar. He was not even on the local intelligence list. Hi not from Tamil Nadu. There is no evidence of link between the two as of now.”
On the nature of the explosive devices, the official said: “Jameesha Mubeen did not have any timer device which he could operate remotely, while the device used in Mangalore had an integrated circuit and appears to be a separate Shimoga module”. .
The state police has tightened security across the state. Tamil Nadu Director General of Police Dr Sylendra Babu told NDTV, “We have tightened security across the state, especially in the border districts”.
Shariq, who was traveling in the auto, suffered injuries in the blast along with the driver and is currently undergoing treatment at a hospital. Though he is out of danger, police say he is not well enough to give a statement.
Police said he was carrying a low-intensity improvised explosive device or IED. A burnt pressure cooker with batteries was found inside the vehicle.
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