The National Investigation Agency (NIA) conducted raids in Kodagu district of Karnataka after learning that the prime suspect in the Mangaluru blast case took “jungle survival training” in the district.
During probe of the blast case, they learned that accused Mohammed Shariq, 24, and his associates wanted to set up an Islamic state camp in the forests of Karnataka.
The NIA searched the premises of the homestay where Shariq was staying and details of the training that he underwent were collected, said police.
The homestay comes under the jurisdiction of T Shettigeri village panchayat and is adjacent to a tea estate. According to police, Shariq and the others took training here in May, months before they tested a bomb in Shivamogga district.
Shariq told the investigators that a Hyderabad-based firm had organised a three-day camp for the public to stay in forests. They had participated in “this wilderness survival and bush-craft skills practice-oriented workshop which was led by experts and ex-army personnel”, said police quoting him.
“The event was open to the public and the trio attended it to aid their goal of setting up an IS camp. We are checking if the accused had trained more people,” said an officer.
The NIA team visited a homestay and collected documents and other records from the owner. They also obtained contact details and addresses of all 14 members who participated in the training camp along with the camp organisers.
A day after the blast in Mangaluru in which two people, including Shariq, were injured, state police chief Praveen Sood on November 20 had declared the incident an “act of terror with the intention to cause serious damage”.
During the probe, police identified Shariq as the bomber. Videos on how to make bike and cooker bombs were recovered from his phone, said police
The investigation pointed out that the nature of the IED shows that the group did not have large funding or support.. Police identified the material used to make the IED as potassium chlorate — used to manufacture match boxes and crackers. Police also recovered 150 matchboxes, sulphur powder, and gunpowder from a Mysuru residence where Shariq had stayed earlier.
After NIA took over the case, two old cases involving him were discovered. Shariq was arrested back in December 2020. The arrest was the result of an investigation into pro-terror graffiti on walls of a building in the East police station limits and on a wall in the North police station limits. Police had arrested Shariq, along with Mazz Muneer Ahmed, who was then 21-year-old.
In September 2022, Shariq’s name cropped up in another terror case. The Shivamogga police had on September 23 said that two associates of a person arrested in connection with a stabbing incident during a clash over Hindutva ideologue Vinayak Damodar Savarkar’s poster have links to the Islamic State.
One of the four arrested men had told police that Mazz, who was arrested along with Shariq in the graffiti case was an associate. When police took Mazz into custody, he said that he and Shariq had conducted trial bomb blasts along the banks of the Tungabhadra river.
An officer had said during raids carried out in 11 locations as part of the investigation, police seized 14 mobiles, two laptops, remnants of the experimental bomb found at the blast site, material required to make bombs, and a half-burnt national flag.
Explaining the findings of the investigation, the officer said that in the days following Independence Day, the national flag of India was burnt near the spot where the bomb experimented and it was video graphed on their mobile phones.
“The accused profess the ideology of Islamic State. They were of the view that India got Independence merely from the British. But the real independence would be achieved only after establishing a caliphate in the forests of Karnataka and enforcing Sharia law.” the police officer said.
With the investigation into the jungle survival, police hope that more leads could be found about Shariq’s associates.
