Bomb Blast in Bangalore

[shiv]

I think it is equally insulting to the family of the dead to let this thread degenerate into a political battlefield.

Would it be possible to stop, please, and stick to the topic regarding the progress of investigation

[ramana]

Cut out the political crap and stick to the facts.

Happy New Year.

R

[ravip]

I was speaking about the actions taken by govt, but some 'thekedhars' diverted to secular-communal debate. Happy New Year:-)

[ramana]

OK. Looks like you believe in flaming. First warning of new year for you!

HNY!

R

[ramana]

3 suspected IM operatives arrested in Karnataka

Bengaluru: A suspected terror module was busted on Thursday in Karnataka and a huge cache of explosives was seized.

Those arrested may be operatives of of the banned Indian Mujahideen (IM) but there was no official confirmation of the same.

At the same time media reports said that their possible role in the recent Bengaluru blast that killed a woman and injured three others was being probed.

Commissioner of Police, MN Reddi, confirmed that two people had been arrested from Bhatkal, as per ANI.

He added that “simultaneous raids were conduct in Bangalore and Bhatkal and substantial quantity of explosive material and equipments were recovered.”

Ammonium nitrate, detonators, electronic timer devices, digital circuits, circuit making material, PVC pipes, gel based explosive material and fuel oil were seized, he said, adding, that the communication equipment found is being examined to find out whether they could be an 'additive' for the explosions device, as per PTI.

Reddi gave the names of the arrested as Syed Ismail Aafaque, aged 34, Saddam Hussein, 35, and Abdus Sabuur, 24, an MBA student, saying they were found to be in regular interaction with other members of the banned organisations.

He said two men were arrested at Pulikeshinagar in Bengaluru and another at Bhatkal.

During the raid on a house at Pulikeshinagar, police found several "incriminating" materials comprising communication equipment, cell phones, laptops and other equipment, he said.

Initial information showed that they were operating under the direct instructions of a handler in the higher rungs within their organisation, he revealed.

To a query, he said, there was no "direct link" of the arrested alleged IM operatives to the December 28 blast on Church Street here, but their suspected role was being probed.

"Prima facie we do not see connection with the Church street blast. However nothing could be ruled out at this stage.The handler is based out of this country.”

The "quantity and sophistication of the incriminating material" and equipment for manufacturing explosive devices found in Bhatkal as well some of the incriminating electronic materials seized in Pulikeshinagar suggested that "it is part of a larger scheme of things," Reddi said.

Further investigation was being taken up jointly by the Bengaluru police and the Internal Security Division of the Karnataka police, he said.

Cases have been registered under various sections of the Explosive Substances Act and Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.

One woman was killed and three injured in a blast in front of a famous restaurant in the heart of Bengaluru city on December 28.

The blast, which was of low-intensity, took place outside an eating joint called Coconut Grove restaurant in busy Church Street area. The IED wrapped in a plastic bag and suspected to have been placed in a bushy plant went off around 8.30 pm in front of the restaurant.

With Agency inputs

It could be ISI module located in Karnataka. IM link could be tenuous.

[Sachin]

On the Bangalore blasts..
Off course The Hindu would report the news, but in its own unique way (of defending the arrested, in case they are from a specific community). So here it is.
Two suspects picked up in Bengaluru blast case
Suspected IM module seems to be a logistic provider: investigators

Police claimed to have seized nearly 3 kg of gel-based explosive, more than 4 kg of ammonium nitrate, and 10 electrical circuits used for preparing high-end improvised explosive device (IED) from the house. The police said the explosives were locally sourced, and that they were trying to establish their trail.
............
A social activist from Bhatkal, Altaf Kharoori, said the police had staked-out the house in the area that was locked. He disputed the police claims that they recovered explosives from the house.
............
While police claimed to have recovered a huge cache of explosives from a house in Bhatkal town, locals dispute it


BTW, is'nt Pulikeshi Nagar the new name of the old Frazer Town?

[ramana]

Sachin, There is something rotten in Bengluru with regards to terrorism. Let me elaborate.

One expects old city are of Hyderabad to have pockets of disgruntled elements who are a ready base for ISI to launch terror attacks. Bengluru is modern colonial built city with out Muslim pockets. Yet in South India, after Hyderabad, it has the largest number of attacks with loss of life by Muslim origin terrorists. Perpetrators are arrested only after the attack. Never heard of preventive disruption of terror modules.

I will give another instance of intransigence.. Our driver, a Hyderabadi Muslim, was harassed by an auto rickshaw driver and all sorts of cuss words starting from mother words were used. What got my driver's goat was the auto driver was a local Muslim and who could sense the person he was berating was another Muslim.....

Our driver had extensive all India roads (Gujarat border to North East) experience and said that something is changing in Karnataka. A grievance he mentioned was the Nizam helping defeat Tippu!!!

[chetak]

Sachin, There is something rotten in Bengluru with regards to terrorism. Let me elaborate.

One expects old city are of Hyderabad to have pockets of disgruntled elements who are a ready base for ISI to launch terror attacks. Bengluru is modern colonial built city with out Muslim pockets. Yet in South India, after Hyderabad, it has the largest number of attacks with loss of life by Muslim origin terrorists. Perpetrators are arrested only after the attack. Never heard of preventive disruption of terror modules.

I will give another instance of intransigence.. Our driver, a Hyderabadi Muslim, was harassed by an auto rickshaw driver and all sorts of cuss words starting from mother words were used. What got my driver's goat was the auto driver was a local Muslim and who could sense the person he was berating was another Muslim.....

Our driver had extensive all India roads (Gujarat border to North East) experience and said that something is changing in Karnataka. A grievance he mentioned was the Nizam helping defeat Tippu!!!

In bangalore there is great money power among the islamists. it is turning out to be another kerala with the VERY same people radicalizing the state.

All significant property on prime business plots are already owned by them and gulf money is now fast spreading in the state. Their power was demonstrated when they orchestrated the mass exodus of the north eastern population a few years ago by the sheer threat of violence.

In property deals, in localities which were naturally banned for them earlier, these guys are offering greater than 30% premium on prices and starting to move in with great financial determination. In many localities, entire streets are now owned by these out of state people running flourishing businesses with prominent Hindu named shops. They do not hire local guys in their businesses.

[Sachin]

Bengluru is modern colonial built city with out Muslim pockets.

I do feel that there are Muslim pockets in Bengaluru city as well. It may not be as big or as pronounced in say Hyderabad, but there are Muslim ghettos in Bengaluru. This Frazer Town/Pulikeshi Nagara is such a place. There are also areas like Tannery Road etc. which has the problem. In South East there are certain areas in Madivala/BTM which has similar ghettos.

Take the linked report for an example. The area mentioned in the report is another ghetto, where beef etc. is readily available.

All significant property on prime business plots are already owned by them and gulf money is now fast spreading in the state.

And most of this is mainly due to the political backing, is what I feel. There is active support for these kind of activities by the "secular" gang of politicians. Dakshin Kannada etc., I feel is now pretty much 95% polarised but there I feel even the right wingers are pretty strong. In cities like Bengaluru, with a cosmopolitan crowd it is tough for such kind of grouping to happen.

In the mean while one more arrest..
Fourth terror suspect arrested in Mangaluru
Arrested homoeopath, the missing link in the explosive-supply trail?

The Hindu consistently gives very high importance to the story given by the arrested person's relatives. I have been writing to them, on why The Hindu (which is a news paper) has to push in their own theories. Let the courts decide all that. The Hindu just sits on my comment - it neither gets approved nor rejected. When they reject they generally put in some vague reason as an excuse.

[chilarai]

Bengluru is modern colonial built city with out Muslim pockets.

I do feel that there are Muslim pockets in Bengaluru city as well. It may not be as big or as pronounced in say Hyderabad, but there are Muslim ghettos in Bengaluru. This Frazer Town/Pulikeshi Nagara is such a place. There are also areas like Tannery Road etc. which has the problem. In South East there are certain areas in Madivala/BTM which has similar ghettos.

during my stay in 1998-2001 I found jayanagar 4th T block also to be such a pocket. The movie theatre in that area (forgot the name ) would have crowds whistling/clapping wildly whenever a muslim guys makes long dialog on Islam. ( like the muslim guy in sarfarosh tells what muslim means etc )

[SSridhar]

NewssX channel is reporting that one of the arrested had a Pakistani wife and used to visit that country often and was planning to escape to Dubai when he was arrested. He had established contacts with terrorist groups there etc.

[shiv]

during my stay in 1998-2001 I found jayanagar 4th T block also to be such a pocket. The movie theatre in that area (forgot the name ) would have crowds whistling/clapping wildly whenever a muslim guys makes long dialog on Islam. ( like the muslim guy in sarfarosh tells what muslim means etc )

That theater (Swagat) is now a mall - Garuda Swagat

[Sachin]

NewssX channel is reporting that one of the arrested had a Pakistani wife and used to visit that country often and was planning to escape to Dubai when he was arrested. He had established contacts with terrorist groups there etc.

Is that the fellow Riyaz Ahmed Sayeedi (32), who got very smartly picked up from Bajpe airport right after he finished his Immigration formalities? Because main stream media (including The Hindu etc.) have started a sob story campaign, with his father and two sisters pleading for the "innocence" of their son/brother. His mother seems to be sick (which got aggravated after the arrest), but nothing is mentioned about his wife. This person seems to have gone to the middle east around 15 years back after completing his "Islamic Education"{as per Deccan Herald}.

[ramana]

Twitter had a story about another fellow being interrogated for links to those arrested.
Will find the story and post.
If anyone like chetak knows please do the honors.

[SSridhar]

Four SIMI fugitives nabbed in Odisha - The Hindu

Four members of the banned Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) who had escaped from Khandwa jail in Madhya Pradesh in 2013 were arrested from Rourkela in Odisha after a three-hour operation involving an exchange of fire on Tuesday night . . . . .Those who were arrested have been identified as Mohammad Aijajudden, Amjad Khan, Zakir Hussein and Mahboob Guddu and Najma Bee (Mahboob’s mother).

Probe may shed more light on Bengaluru blast - KV Aditya Bharadwaj, The Hindu

The SIMI’s Khandwa module busted on Tuesday night in Rourkela, Odisha, is expected to shed more light on the conspiracy behind the December 28, 2014 Church Street blast here, the probe into which, till recently, was believed to have reached a dead end.

While Wednesday’s arrest is being tipped as a major breakthrough that can help investigators piece together the terror trail and the conspiracy that culminated in the low-intensity blast in Church Street, which claimed a woman’s life, it follows the recent arrest of a SIMI activist, Alam Jeb Afridi, from the Parappana Agrahara locality in Bengaluru by Telangana ATS {It is the same Telengana ATS that helped nab the four SIMI terrorists from Odisha as well}.

Though Afridi’s arrest was made more than a year after the blast, his role, investigators said, was only to plant the bomb. The NIA had then claimed that Afridi was working on the instructions of a “handler”, who they suspect is part of the SIMI module busted in Rourkela.

Afridi, suspected to be involved in the 2008 Ahmedabad blast also, was hiding in Bengaluru under the alias Rafeeq and working as an AC mechanic.

Afridi is accused of participating in the December 2007 terror training camp at Vagamon in Kerala. A key member of the now-busted Khandwa module, Sheikh Mehboob alias Guddu is also an accused in the Vagamon terror camp case. Abu Faisal, the leader of the Khandwa module, who escaped from prison in October 2013 but was nabbed in December 2013, had also allegedly participated in the camp.

“Not just that, Afridi is a known associate of Abdul Subhan Qureshi alias Tauqeer, a SIMI leader and one of the organisers of the Vagamon camp. Intelligence reports have recorded a meeting between Abu Faisal, the now-jailed leader of Khandwa module and Tauqeer in 2011. Afridi is either one of the two verticals working for Tauqeer (the other one is suspected to be the Khandwa module) or he may have been directly working for the Khandwa module,” a senior NIA official said.

It looks like that these guys were trying out some new bomb-making process but unsuccessfully and that was why the Church Street & Central Station bombs were of low intensity.

[shiv]

Some these guys may actually have been servicing my car..