Coimbatore: The police on Wednesday conducted raids at 18 places in connection with the Mangaluru pressure cooker blast conspiracy.
The police raids in Mangaluru and Mysuru included the houses of relatives of Muhammed Shariq, the mastermind in the Mangaluru blast case.
Explosives were unearthed in a raid in Shivamogga the other day. Efforts are on to trace Shariq’s associates in places such as Thiruchirappally, Madurai, and Chennai, which he had visited.
Surendran, a teacher in a private school in Ooty, who had helped Shariq to get the SIM card from Coimbatore, has been released after three consecutive days of interrogation.
Shariq, who was injured in the explosion, is undergoing treatment in hospital.
Meanwhile, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) is preparing to interrogate the accused in the Coimbatore car blast case in connection with the Mangaluru explosion. The move comes after it was confirmed that Jamesha Mubin, who was killed in the car blast, and Mohammad Shariq, the brain behind the Mangaluru pressure cooker explosion, had met each other.
The NIA has issued a look-out notice for a Shivamogga native, who is believed to have provided finance for carrying out the operation. Central agencies say that Jamesha Mubin and Mohammad Shariq had met each other at Singanallur in Coimbatore.
Shariq, who visited Coimbatore in September and October, had stayed in a dormitory at Gandhi Nagar. The police have closed and sealed the dormitory.
Last Saturday, a bomb exploded in a moving autorickshaw in Mangaluru. The accused in the blast, Mohammed Shariq from Thirthahalli in Shivamogga district, was travelling in an autorickshaw with a pressure cooker fitted with a detonator, wires and batteries, when it exploded at Kankanadi, on the outskirts of Mangaluru.
After Coimbatore, the explosion in Mangaluru has raised concerns among security agencies. An investigation into the accused who carried out the blast in an autorickshaw in Mangaluru revealed that he had visited Kerala several times in the last three months.
Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) of the Kerala Police has found that Mangaluru blast accused H Mohammad Shariq stayed at a lodge near Aluva bus station from September 13 to 18. ATS is sharing details of his stay in Aluva with Mangaluru police.
