Bengaluru Rameshwaram Cafe blast | Police probing networks of four absconding terror suspects

In connection with the recent Rameshwaram Cafe blast, the Bengaluru City Police are probing the networks of at least four terror suspects from Karnataka who have given security agencies the slip and are still at large, informed sources said. At least two of them are believed to be based abroad, while another, known just by his code name “Colonel”, is yet to be identified. 

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Owing to the similarities in the assembling of the explosive, the detonator, timer and the mechanism used to explode the bomb, between the recent explosion in the restaurant and the cooker bomb blast at Mangaluru on November 19, 2022, the police are now probing the networks of the absconding accused — Abdul Mateen Taha, 30, Musabir Hussain and ‘Colonel’ — in the Mangaluru case, the sources said. 

This alleged module, inspired by the Islamic State (IS), originated from Shivamogga district. Mohammed Shariq, 30, who turned up with a cooker bomb that went off in his hands in an autorickshaw, first came on the radar of the agencies with a pro-terror graffiti in Mangaluru in 2020, along with his associates Arafath Ali, Yasin and Maaz Muneer. All three have been arrested now. 

However, the State police named Abdul Mateen Taha and Musabir Hussain, also hailing from Shivamogga district, as suspects in the Mangaluru cooker blast case. Both Taha and Hussain are also accused in an IS-inspired Al Hind module case busted in Suddaguntepalya, Bengaluru in 2020 and had been at large since then. This IS module was put together by Mehboob Pasha of Bengaluru and Khaja Moideen of Cuddalore, Tamil Nadu and the NIA charge sheet alleges that they wanted to set up camps in the forests of south India and launch insurgency. The National Investigation Agency has declared a prize money of ₹5 Lakh for information on Taha. 

Police suspect that the duo, who escaped arrest in the Al Hind module case, and now suspected to be based in the Gulf or Middle East, groomed the four youths from their home district, helped and funded them, pushing them to carry out terror acts. Investigation into the Mangaluru case also revealed that the accused were also in touch with a man code-named ‘Colonel’, whose identity is yet to be established. He is said to be the “handler” of the module. 

Claims responsibility

Following the Mangaluru cooker blast case, police found a photo of Mohammed Shariq dressed like an IS fighter holding the cooker rigged with explosives and days after the accidental blast, an unknown group that called itself “Islamic Resistance Council” claimed responsibility and warned of more to come. Now given the similarity to the improvised explosive device in Mangaluru and Bengaluru, police are now probing the networks of these absconding accused, to see whether they were involved in the recent blast as well.  

Accused in the Mangaluru cooker blast case, including Mohammed Shariq, who are presently lodged in the Parappana Agrahara Central Prison, are likely to be questioned in the Rameshwaram Cafe case. 

Meanwhile, the city police had busted another alleged terror module in the city in July 2023, where Junaid, a career criminal from the city was allegedly radicalised in the Parappana Agrahara Central Prison by 2008 Bengaluru serial blast case accused, allegedly linked to Lashkar-e-Taiba, T. Nasir. While Junaid’s associates were arrested and factory-made grenades, country made pistols and walkie-talkies rigged to work as detonators, allegedly supplied by Junaid to carry out terror acts, were recovered, Junaid who went to Dubai in 2021, is still at large. The police are probing this module to see if any are involved in the Rameshwaram Cafe blast case.