Cafe blast: CM Siddaramaiah lauds NIA, K’taka cops for arrests
Mysuru: Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Saturday thanked the National Investigation Agency (NIA) and Karnataka Police for the arrests in the Bengaluru cafe blast case.
Speaking to reporters in Mysuru, CM Siddaramaiah stated, “I thank the NIA and also Karnataka Police for being able to trace the accused persons and arrest them. We will get to know the facts about the bomb blast once they come to Bengaluru from Kolkata.”
When asked about the accused terrorists’ extensive movement and links in Karnataka, CM Siddaramaiah said that this was not known yet.
“They have to be investigated to ascertain facts,” he added.
The NIA on Friday arrested bomber Mussavir Hussain Shazib and his accomplice Abdul Matheen Taha from a hideout in Kolkata.
The authorities found a fake Aadhaar card of a software professional from Kalaburagi working in Bengaluru.
Both suspected terrorists were brought to Bengaluru on Saturday and taken for a medical test.
According to NIA sources, the accused terrorists changed their hideouts once in two to three days and used different names such as Sanjay Agarwal, Uday Das, Yashu Patel, and Vignesh.
They stayed in different hotels in Kolkata and Medinipur cities of West Bengal and told hotel staff that they were from Jharkhand and Tripura.
Mastermind Taha, is a resident of Thirthahalli town in Shivamogga District and has connections with ISIS. He had learnt bomb-making on the Dark Net.
He had planned the Mangaluru cooker bomb blast in November 2022 and also the Rameshwaram cafe blast incident on March 1 this year.
The trial blast was also conducted on the banks of the Tungabhadra River in Shivamogga. Taha had carried out money transactions through cryptocurrency.
The families of Taha and Mussavir have locked up their homes and moved to undisclosed locations.
Taha’s father is an ex-serviceman and opposed to his activities.
NIA sources also stated that Taha and Mussavir are childhood friends.