NIA nabs 6 Al-Qaeda men who were planning to target PM

Madurai/Chennai/Hyderabad: The National Investigation Agency’s Hyderabad unit on Monday arrested six terror suspects of the Al-Qaeda-inspired group called “Base Movement” for carrying out bomb blasts in court complexes in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Kerala and for planning to target Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The leader of the Tamil Nadu-based group, identified as Dawood Suleman, 23, a resident of Chennai’s Thiruvanmiyur, is a software engineer with TCS Chennai. He is currently being questioned.

The five other accused were identified as Abbas Ali, 27, of Ismalipuram; Mohamm-ed Abdul Kareem, 25, of K. Pudur; Shamshum Karawa, Ayub Khan, 25, of GR Nagar; and Hafeez. While three of them have been officially arrested, the NIA is interrogating the other three. The accused were arrested from Madurai and Chennai.

According to top sources in the NIA, a pen drive found at the scene of the blast at the Nellore district court in AP contained a photograph of Mr Modi and a threat to target him.

With the arrest of the terror group, the NIA and the Telangana and Tamil Nadu police, averted the next targets of the group — on February 9, 2017 — the Mysuru railway court and Palakkad court in Kerala.

The six accused were involved in bomb blasts in parking lots in the Chittoor court in Andhra Pradesh and Kollam in Kerala and inside court premises in Mysuru in Karnataka, Nellore in Andhra Pradesh and Malappuram in Kerala.

The bomb maker was identified as Abbas, who ran a library named Darul Ilm at Madurai. Ayub Khan worked as a public liaison officer for a hearing aid company. Shamshum Karawa Raja owned a chicken broiler shop at Kannimara Koil in Madurai. Abbas, Shamshum Karawa and Kareem were involved in the Chittoor and Nellore blasts.

The arrested persons will be produced before local courts in Chennai and Madurai for seeking transit remand for transferring them to the NIA special court at Hyderabad where the Mysuru blast case was registered.

Meanwhile, the parents of the three youths told reporters at the district court on Monday evening that Abdul Kareem and Ayub Khan were good friends and they had gone to the DRO Colony mosque on Sunday evening.

“As they didn’t return still 10 pm, we called them on their mobile phones. They informed us that they would come home soon, but we learnt through the media that the police had secured them,” said the parents. Khan had got married only last week, his father said.