Bengaluru blasts: Terror suspect Shoaib was hiding in West Asia for 12 years
BENGALURU: Shoaib, the terror suspect arrested in the 2008 Bengaluru serial blasts case by the Anti-Terrorist Cell (ATC) police of the Central Crime Branch (CCB), had allegedly fled the country soon after the incident and was hiding in West Asia.A senior police officer said that Shoaib hailed from Pappinisseri Town in Kannur district of Kerala and was an associate of Thadiyantavide Naseer, an alleged operative of Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorist outfit. “Shoaib had played an active role in the serial blasts and had escaped soon after the incident to West Asia.
His role in the case had surfaced in 2009 and the teams had visited his house in Pappinisseri and met his mother. By that time, he had already fled the country,” the officer said.“We had arrested Saleem, another accused in the case, in October 2018 with the help of inputs from central agencies. During the same time, the agencies had traced Shoaib’s movements to a country in West Asia. His phone interceptions had revealed that he was planning to return to India soon. If he had not changed the plans, he would have been arrested by the end of 2018 or early 2019,” the officer added.
It is alleged that Shoaib had actively taken part in the conspiracy meetings to plan the serial blasts and also in the execution.Meanwhile, the ATC police have taken Shoaib, arrested at Thiruvananthapuram airport on Monday, into police custody. Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime) Sandeep Patil said that the role of Shoaib needs to be thoroughly investigated.
“He was absconding for 12 years and we had issued a Red Corner Notice against him in October last year, following information from central agencies. The ATC team had camped in Thiruvananthapuram for the past few days upon receiving information from agencies that he would be coming back,” Patil said. He added that 22 of the 32 accused in the case have been arrested so far.