Tamil Nadu Police is on high alert after the Mangaluru autorickshaw blast accused Mohammed Shariq revealed his Coimbatore connection, and have stepped up vigil along the State border. Shariq had apparently stayed in Coimbatore for a few months and even procured a SIM card using the Aadhar details of Surendran, a private school teacher, and his roommate.
Surendran has since been apprehended, and he is being interrogated in police custody.
Surendran of Udhagamandalam has, however, said that he did not have too many details about Mohammed Shariq other than sharing his dormitory when the latter stayed in Coimbatore.
Security has been tightened at all the check-posts bordering Kerala. Coimbatore Police have posted large numbers of personnel and are combing the area, while stepping up checks of all vehicles.
The NIA has begun its probe about the background of accused Mohammed Shariq and his contacts in Tamil Nadu.
After the October 23 Coimbatore car blast, in which a terror operative Jameesha Mubin was charred to death, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) has been conducting searches across Tamil Nadu to flush out terror operatives and their contacts.
Both the Tamil Nadu police and the NIA are looking into any possible links between Mohammed Shariq and the accused in the Coimbatore LPG cylinder blast, Jameesha Mubin, and the six other accused in the case who are in judicial custody.
Mohammed Talka, one of the jailed Islamic operatives in the Coimbatore car blast case is the nephew of S.A. Basha, who launched the terror organisation, Al-Umma, which was behind the February 14, 1998 blasts of Coimbatore in which 56 people died and over 200 injured, ahead of BJP leader LK Advani’s proposed visit to Coimbatore.
Shariq’s links with various other organisations is also being probed by the Tamil Nadu police.
Tamil Nadu police probe so far has revealed that 24-year-old Shariq stayed in Coimbatore in the first week of September.
While staying in a dormitory in Coimbatore, Shariq used his associate Surendran’s Aadhaar card credentials to obtain a SIM card.
Investigators are looking at the possibility of his links with Jameesha Mubin, who was killed in the car blast in Coimbatore last month, or with other suspected Islamic State operatives and sympathisers in the State.
Tamil Nadu Director-General of Police (DGP) C. Sylendra Babu has confirmed that Shariq had stayed in Coimbatore in the first week of September, and that special teams were enquiring about details of his associates and contacts as he was not previously on the radar of the State police.
At the moment, preliminary investigation has revealed that Shariq was trained in the making of Improvised Explosive Devices that could be triggered by timer devices. A burnt pressure cooker and batteries were found at the scene of the blast.
The DGP said that investigators would look into the similarities between the nature of explosives used in the Mangaluru blast and in the Coimbatore car explosion which took place on October 23, in which the main suspect Mubin was killed.
Senior police officers across Tamil Nadu have been alerted to enhance manpower at check-posts along the State borders, Babu said. While vehicle checks have been intensified at vulnerable locations, police will also thoroughly verify abandoned vehicles like cars, vans, motorcycles and autorickshaws, he added.
The Government Railway Police were told to coordinate with the Railway Protection Force and step-up surveillance at major railway stations as well.
Strict access control measures are in place at vital installations and sensitive locations where plainclothesmen have been posted to look for any suspicious persons or activities, Bau stated.