ISIS ‘Base Movement’ coordinates blasts in Kerala from TN

The minor explosion on Malappuram court premises on Tuesday is the second in the state and fifth in the country since April 2016.

KOZHIKODE: After terror tentacles of Islamic State (IS) came to light with the arrest of six IS operatives from Kerala, the state police are now worried about the rising activities of a newly formed little know terror group ‘Base Movement’ in Kerala which has extended its operations to Kerala from Tamil Nadu and is reportedly behind five blasts in South India.

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The minor explosion on Malappuram court premises on Tuesday is the second in the state and fifth in the country since April 2016.

In Kerala, the first explosion took place at Kollam court complex on June 14 in which a person sustained minor injuries after an improvised explosive device (IED) kept under an unused jeep on the court premises went off.

A police officer, conducting the investigation in the Kollam case, said though they couldn’t get much details about the new terror outfit it was found that the group had established a strong network in Tamil Nadu.

“We could only zero in on a single person in connection with the blast,” he said.

Thiruvananthapuram Range Inspector General Manoj Abraham too confirmed that the probe into the Kollam court blast revealed Tamil Nadu links.  

It was on April 7 that the first explosion took place at a Chittoor court in Andhra Pradesh followed by a blast at Kollam court in Kerala on June 15, Mysuru court complex on August 1 and Nellore court complex in Andhra Pradesh on September 12.

“Though IED was used in all the explosions, no proper detonator was used in them. Our probe revealed that the outfit has operatives in Tamil Nadu coordinating missions in other southern states,” the officer said.

Investigators had found that the ‘Base Movement’ had suspected allegiance to Al Qaeda as the word ‘Al Qaeda” means base and the movement was said to be a South Indian outfit of Al Qaeda.  This mysterious outfit has announced launch of its operations by sending letters and mails to various institutions in South India which included French consulate in Bengaluru and a letter to Karnataka Additional Chief Secretary in January 2015. The letters contained a map of India, a picture of slain Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and the words ‘Al Qaeda’ at the bottom.

Though the origin of all the letters and mails were traced to Tamil Nadu, the police couldn’t make any major headway in the probe.Reports say ‘Base Movement’ referred to Al Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS), formed in August 2014 with the official name of ‘Jamaat Qaidat al-jihad fi’shibhi al-qarrat al-Hindiya’ or ‘Organisation of the Base of Jihad in the Indian Subcontinent.’  There was also a video posted online on September 3, 2014, in which Al Qaeda leader Ayman Al Zawahiri had announced the launch of AQIS and claimed to have gathered several groups in the subcontinent under its umbrella.

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