According to a senior police officer, the targets included the collectorate, the city police commissioner’s office, the railway station, the Victoria Town Hall and the race course in Coimbatore; Another official claims that some of those arrested may be sympathizers of the terrorist group Islamic State.
According to a senior police officer, the targets included the collectorate, the city police commissioner’s office, the railway station, the Victoria Town Hall and the race course in Coimbatore; Another official claims that some of those arrested may be sympathizers of the terrorist group Islamic State.
Five suspects have been arrested in this connection recent car explosion Jamisha Mubeen, who was killed in the blast in front of the Sangameshwara temple in Coimbatore’s Kottaimedu, reportedly had a list of places where he planned to launch possible attacks.
A senior police officer said that it is suspected that some of the arrested persons There were “sympathizers” of Islamic State (IS), an international terrorist organization, and one of them, 27-year-old Firoz Ismail, was deported from the United Arab Emirates for the same reason in 2020.
Police personnel take the accused involved in a car blast for a medical examination in front of the Sangameshwar team in Kottamedu, Coimbatore, before being produced in court for judicial remand on October 25, 2022. photo credit: special arrangement
Another senior police officer said the suspected “hit list” includes places like the Coimbatore collectorate, the city police commissioner’s office, Coimbatore railway station, Victoria Town Hall and the race course. The police found a list of locations from Mubeen’s house on HMPR Street in Kottaimedu during a search after the car blast on October 23. The official said the places were code-named as “tourist places”. A search of the residence of engineering graduate Mubeen also revealed large quantities of explosive material like potassium nitrate, aluminum powder, sulfur and charcoal, which the accused had allegedly procured from different places.
According to an official, during investigation it was found that Mubeen had watched videos describing the making of crude explosives. The other known accused – Firoz Ismail, Muhammad Thalha, 25, Muhammad Azharuddin, 23, Muhammad Rias, 27, and Muhammad Nawaz Ismail, 27 – are suspected of aiding Mubeen at various levels. “When the police entered the house, there was a smell of chemicals in the air,” the officer said. Mubeen lived with his wife and two children.
Police are probing whether the accused had contacted 32-year-old Mohammad Azharuddin, who is a ‘Facebook friend’ of its mastermind. Sri Lanka’s Easter Sunday BombingsZahran Hashim, who was arrested by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in June 2019 for allegedly leading an IS module based in Coimbatore.
As part of the probe into the alleged module, the NIA had searched the then residence of Mubeen.
Responding to reporters on Tuesday, Coimbatore city police commissioner V. Balakrishnan said investigators were probing whether Mubeen or his associates met Azharuddin in a Kerala jail. “It is learned that the accused have gone to Kerala. We are probing why and when they went to Kerala,” he said, adding that the police were collecting surveillance camera footage from places around the blast site to check the movements of the accused.
banned dress
Mr Balakrishnan confirmed that Thalha, who is accused of buying a car for Mubeen, is a relative of SA Basha, the jailed founding president of Al-Umah, who was banned for his involvement in the 1998 serial bombings in Coimbatore Is.