The prime accused in the Mangaluru auto-rickshaw blast case Mohammad Shariq was discharged from Bengaluru’s Victoria Hospital on Monday, officials close to developments said, adding that the National Investigation Agency (NIA) took him into custody.
Shariq’s discharge comes on the same day officers in the Karnataka government ruled out the Islamic State in Khorasan Province (ISKP) and Islamic Resistance Council (IRC) behind the blast, as claimed on social media.
Local intelligence officers said they believe some locals, whose motive would be known only after a detailed interrogation of Mohammad Shariq, the lone suspect in the case, carried out the blast.
The blast occurred in an auto-rickshaw on November 19, injuring its driver, Purushottam, and the passenger, later identified as Thirthahalli-based Shariq. The 24-year-old accused was allegedly travelling with an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) placed inside a pressure cooker when it exploded.
Shariq suffered more than 25% burns in the blast, and the interrogation of the suspect was delayed as he had lost the ability to talk after the smoke from the explosion filled his lungs. He was undergoing treatment for two and a half months. Mohammad Shariq was shifted to the Victoria hospital from a hospital in Mangaluru on December 17, 2022.
NIA getting his custody would be crucial since two organisations have taken responsibility for the attack. Ahead of the Karnataka Assembly Election, terrorist outfit Islamic State in Khorasan Province (ISKP) claimed the responsibility for blasts in Mangaluru last year and asked its “operatives” in South India to “wage a war against Hindus and the country’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)”.
ISKP, an UN-designated terrorist organisation, made the claims in the latest issue of its propaganda magazine ‘Voice of Khurasan’.
The 68-page issue of the magazine was released by ISKP’s Al-Azaim Media Foundation on Saturday. HT could not independently verify the authenticity of the magazine.
On November 23, the IRC claimed responsibility for the November 19 blast in Mangaluru. The post has been doing rounds of the instant messaging app Telegram, where the organisation said that its ‘Mujahid brother Mohammed Shariq’ attempted to attack a ‘Hindutva Temple in Kadri.’
“We, the Islamic Resistance Council (IRC), would like to convey the message: One of our Mujahid brothers, Mohammed Shariq, attempted to attack the Hindutva Temple in Kadri (in Dakshina Kannada district), a bastion of the Saffron terrorists in Mangaluru. Although this operation didn’t meet its objectives, we still consider it a success from a tradecraft and tactics point of view as the brother, despite being wanted and being pursued by the state and central intelligence agencies, was not only able to successfully evade them but even prepared and mounted an attack.” the message which has gone viral in social media said.
An intelligence officer based in Karnataka said there is not enough evidence to suggest both organisations supported the blast. “There is no evidence of Shariq getting any financial or logical support. He was scrapping match boxes to get material to make a bomb,” the officer pointed out.
According to the officer, police are currently probing Abdul Matheen Taha, who is suspected to be a close associate of Shariq. “Our focus will remain on tracking Taha because he is a stronger and more plausible lead. When we probed Taha’s background he was part of Al-Hind, a local organisation inspired by the Islamic State. So, the focus remains there,” he added.
According to police, videos on how to make a bike bomb and cooker bomb have been recovered from Shariq’s phone. The investigation pointed out that the nature of the IED shows that the group didn’t have large funding or support. Police identified the material used to make the IED as potassium chlorate, used to manufacture match boxes and crackers.
The police have recovered 150 matchboxes, sulphur powder and gunpowder from the house the alleged bomber Mohammed Shariq stayed in, in Mysuru. There was a time delay mechanism of a washing machine commonly available in the market, used in the bomb.
Meanwhile, chief minister Basavaraj Bommai questioned Karnataka Congress chief DK Shivakumar on Monday after a global terror outfit ISKP took responsibility for the Mangaluru cooker blast.
The DK Shivakumar in March had alleged that the BJP was calling the Mangaluru incident a terrorist attack prematurely by the ruling BJP to divert the attention of the people from the Voter ID scam. DK Shivakumar was not available for comment.
Speaking to reporters he said, “NIA is carrying out its duties. They have claimed responsibility. Now, what will Shivakumar say? He ridiculed that it was not a cooker bomb and it was just a cooker and nothing in it. Shivakumar also stated that BJP is misusing the issue. What he will tell now,” CM Bommai questioned.
