The mother of a suspect in the Mangaluru blast case told news agency ANI Tuesday she had not seen or contacted her son in three years – when Abdul Mateen Taha, an alleged terrorist with links to the Islamic State, went underground while in Bengaluru to study engineering.
Intelligence officials believe Taha is a member of the Islamic State’s Al-Hind module that was active in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu till it was busted by the NIA in 2020. Taha is also believed to be the ‘handler’ of Mohd Shariq – the primary accused in the case.
“My son has been missing for the last three years. I don’t know where he is. He was studying engineering in Bengaluru. He completed his three-year course and left after attaining his degree. He worked in a private company in Bengaluru for sometime,” Taha’s mother said.
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“If he has done something wrong, let him be punished. My son is 29 years old and my eldest. He has a brother and a sister. Mateen had a lot of love for everyone in the family. I have no clue why he did this. We are still in tears over him,” she said.
“We have not been able to recover from the shock of his disappearance.”
Meanwhile, sources told Hindustan Times Tuesday the suspects in this case – Shariq, Taha and three others – were all from Karnataka’s Shivamogga district, were self-radicalised and learnt rudimentary bomb-making from groups on encrypted messaging platforms.
“So far, we have found no connections with any organisations… but they accessed content provided by the Islamic State through various sources. Out of their own motivation, they have planned these activities,” the officer, who did not want to be named, said.
The police recovered 150 matchboxes, sulphur powder and gunpowder from Shariq’s house in Mysuru on Sunday night. There was a time delay mechanism of a washing machine commonly available in the market, used in the bomb, an officer said.
The blast that struck Mangaluru was a low-intensity explosion inside an auto-rickshaw carrying Shariq that injured both driver and passenger. Shariq is being treated at a hospital and police have said the priority is to ensure he survives as he will have key information.
Karnataka police chief Praveen Sood has called the incident an ‘act of terror…’
