BANGALORE: Cracking the 2008 Bangalore serial bomb blasts case, police have arrested nine persons belonging to a radical group from Kerala and claimed that four others involved in the attack were killed last year in an encounter in Jammu and Kashmir while they were crossing over to Pakistan.
Abdul Sattar, Abdul Jabbar, Sarfudin, Sakariya from Mallapuram, Kerala and Mujeeb, Faizal, Abdul Jaleel, Manaf of Kannur, and Badruddin from Ernakulum have been arrested for their alleged involvement in the July 2008 blasts that left one dead and eight others injured, DGP Ajai Kumar Singh told reporters on Saturday.
Indian Mujahideen, a shadow outfit of banned Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) and Lashkar-e-Toiba, had taken responsibility for the blast.
Four others involved in the blasts were killed in an encounter with the army in Jammu and Kashmir while they were attempting to crossover to Pakistan between October 4 and 7 last year, Bangalore City Police Commissioner Shankar Bidari, who was also present at the press conference, said.
They were identified as Abdul Raheem, son-in-law of Sattar, Mohammad Fyas, Fayis and Mohammad Yasin from Kerala, he said.
'Kerala link'
The killings had prompted authorities to probe the 'Kerala link' of the militant outfits operating in Jammu and Kashmir as there were intelligence inputs that they were on a recruitment drive in the state.
The arrest of Abdul Sattar, who allegedly helped the slain extremists, in Hyderabad on Jan 23 led to the uncovering of the conspiracy into the blasts by the gang, which had procured explosive materials from Kerala.
Both top police officials, however, declined to divulge the name of the radical group the arrested belong to.
The conspiracy for the Bangalore serial blasts was planned at Chettipada and Kannur in Kerala during April and May, the investigations have revealed.
Trailing several leads for about seven months, city police uncovered the plot by the group, whose members spent well over four months from April 2008 to draw up their blueprint to attack the city due to its iconic status acquired after the IT boom, economic prosperity and the fact that it was a BJP ruled state, Singh said.
Singh was the City Police Commissioner when the blasts occurred in eight places from Bangalore's South Madivala area to Mysore Road, with explosived being planted inside flower pots and buckets with timer devices.
The arrested had confessed they decided to set off explosions due to the general feeling of perceived injustice to Muslims in India due to the Babri Masjid demolition, Godhra incident and the riots that followed in Gujarat,Bidari said.
The examination of the timer device of failed IED revealed the bombs were timed for explosion after 36 hours, Bidari said.
Suspecting that the Bangalore blasts had a Kerala angle, a team from Corps of Detectives camped in Kerala for weeks and identified Abdul Sattar of Mallapuram as the main brain behind the micro-chip based timer devices.
Sattar had prepared these devices on the request of Riyaz Bhatkal,a key leader of Indian Mujahideen and in charge of the Gujarat module, Bidari said, adding that the devices used in Surat and Bangalore were similar.
The group, after preparing the bombs, conducted a recce of the city on July 23 to identify places for executing their plan to set off serial explosions, Bidari said. On July 24, they planted bombs from the Madivala to Kengeri area.
Bidari said some more arrests would be made. Some of the arrested were involved in henious criminal cases in Kerala, including an attempt to assasinate former Chief Minister E K Nayanar, he said.
The arrested Munaf, Sarfuddin and four others had tried to murder political leader Rahim Pokadesai using deadly weapons under Thrikakara Police station limits of Ernakulam District on January 10, 2008, while Badruddin, Jabbar and others faced charges of killing a Hindu activist, Vinod Kumar.