South

Mangaluru auto blast accused Shariq’s house raided, bomb disposal squad on the spot

November 20, 2022
Bharat Times

Police recovered a “burnt pressure cooker with battery” inside the autorickshaw.

Mysore:
Searches were conducted at the house of a person allegedly involved in an autorickshaw blast in Karnataka on Saturday. Shareek injured in the blast is in the hospital. Police said that preliminary investigation indicated that he had terrorist links.

Here are the top 10 points in this big story:

  1. The blast took place just months before the state elections in the communally affected coastal city of Mangaluru, 370 km from the state capital Bengaluru.

  2. Police said the passenger in the auto-rickshaw was carrying a low-intensity improvised explosive device or IED. A burnt pressure cooker with batteries was found inside the vehicle.

  3. This morning, police confirmed it was an “act of terrorism with intent to cause serious harm”. The Karnataka Police is probing it along with central agencies.

  4. The police said that Sharik was not fit to give a statement. The injured auto driver is also in the hospital.

  5. Police said that Shariq also had an Aadhaar card, which did not belong to him. The owner of the card has been traced. Premraj Hutagi, a resident of Karnataka’s Hubli district who works as a track maintainer at Tumakuru railway station, said he had lost the card and acquired a duplicate.

  6. Citing the “stolen” Aadhaar card, police said it gives them a “reasonable idea that he (Shariq) was planning to target something, but we don’t know what”. State police chief Praveen Sood said, “We are not ruling out his connection with the recent Coimbatore blast.”

  7. The man, Mr Sood said, is from Karnataka and had traveled outside the state in the past few months. “He had recently traveled to Coimbatore and parts of Tamil Nadu. He was going somewhere,” he said.

  8. On Sunday afternoon, police searched Shariq’s rented house at Madahalli, about 13 km from Mysore. A bomb disposal squad has also been deployed in the area. Police said he had rented a one-room accommodation last month, saying he was in the city for “mobile repair training”.

  9. Police said the man had also bought a SIM card from Coimbatore, which was not in his name. Sources in intelligence agencies said, “The locations of the tower revealed that he had traveled across Tamil Nadu. His call logs are being examined to trace his associates.”

  10. “The State Police has launched a thorough investigation into yesterday’s Mangalore autorickshaw blast incident. It is suspected that it could be a terrorism-related incident. State police as well as central investigative teams will join hands.” Karnataka Home Minister Araga Gyanendra.