NEW DELHI, July 19: The Central Crime Branch (CCB) police on Wednesday arrested five suspected terrorists in Bengaluru who were believed to be planning a terror attack in the Karnataka capital city.
The police are on the lookout for another suspect, Junaid, from Bengaluru’s RT Nagar area, whose current whereabouts are unknown, however, according to the police, the man is believed to be settled abroad and is the mastermind behind providing arms and explosives to the five arrested.
The accused, identified as Syed Suhel, Umar, Faisal, Mudasir, and Zahid, were nabbed in Sultanpalya in RT Nagar where they had gathered for a meeting. They all from Bengaluru and aged between 25 and 35. They were previously arrested in 2017 and were in jail for 18 months in connection with a murder case before being released in 2019.
While at the central prison they had met the serial blast terror suspect who radicalised them and hatched a plan to carry out blasts in city. After coming out on bail, the accused started executing the plan and gathered arms and ammunition and explosive substances.
The CCB officials recovered seven country-made pistols, 42 rounds of ammunition and two phones, and several SIM cards from them. They were also carrying guns and daggers.
Based on a tip-off from central agencies, the CCB officials kept a tab on the accused and arrested them, S.D. Sharanappa, Joint Commissioner of police, said. The accused have been taken into custody for further investigation and efforts are on to track down others who are possibly involved in the case.
During questioning, the suspects disclosed that they had been in contact with T Nazeer, a terror accused who is currently lodged in Bengaluru Central Jail (Parapanna Agrahara). According to Bengaluru Police Commissioner Dayanand B, the five were radicalised by Nazeer.
The accused, along with another person abroad were part of a 2017 murder case. The one abroad supplied them with weapons to carry out terror activities, Dayanand said. The senior police officer added that the Bengaluru Police was coordinating with central agencies to track down Junaid.
The alleged radicalisation of prisoners in Karnataka has raised concerns that these correctional facilities may be breeding grounds for terrorists. Nazeer is accused in the 2008 serial blast case in Bengaluru. In another case, Mohammad Shariq, the key accused in the cooker blast case that took place in Mangaluru last year, is believed to have been radicalised in Belagavi prison by another terror accused who was arrested in connection with the Hyderabad bomb blast case.
(Manas Dasgupta)