ED officers grill cooker blast accused in Bengaluru Central Prison on foreign funding

Bengaluru, Aug 27 (IANS) The sleuths of the Directorate of Enforcement (ED) have grilled suspected terrorists lodged in the Central Prison in Bengaluru in connection with the cooker blast case.

According to sources, ED officers questioned the suspects, including Mohammad Shariq, regarding funding from foreign countries to carry out disruptive activities in India.

The case is currently being investigated by both the National Investigation Agency (NIA) and the ED. While the NIA is handling the broader probe, the ED is focusing on financial transactions and foreign funding. The suspects were questioned specifically about deposits made to their accounts from abroad.

The ED had obtained court permission to interrogate the terror suspects inside the prison, sources added.

More details on the development and official confirmation are awaited.

The cooker blast incident took place on November 19, 2022, in communally sensitive Mangaluru. The Karnataka Police declared it an act of terror. The probe showed that Mohammad Shariq, a suspected terrorist from the state, was planning to carry out an explosion at the CM’s function. When it failed, he was planning to carry out the blast at a children's festival, but it exploded in a moving auto-rickshaw..

Islamic Resistance Council (IRC), an unknown terrorist outfit, claimed responsibility for the act and warned that it would not fail next time.

D.K. Shivakumar, as the Karnataka Congress President, had then stirred a controversy by stating that the Mangaluru blast incident was carried out by the ruling BJP to divert the attention of people from the Voter ID scam after several fake cards were detected.

Shivakumar had further questioned how, without investigation, Mohammad Shariq, arrested in connection with the blast, could be declared a terrorist? "Was it an incident like the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack? Was it an incident like the Pulwama terror attack?" he had said then.

The then BJP-led Karnataka government handed over the investigation of the Mangaluru cooker blast case to the National Investigation Agency on November 25, 2022.

The outfit had also warned then ADGP (Law and Order) Alok Kumar, who was stationed at Mangaluru and personally monitoring the investigations into the blast case. “Alokkumar your joy would be short lived. You pay for your acts of dominance sooner,” the outfit warned.

The probe revealed that the conspiracy was hatched to carry out blasts and put the blame on Hindu organisations, and to start a debate on Hindu terrorism in the country. The cooker bomb was designed to carry out a large-scale attack to fuel communal tension in the coastal region and in the state.

The investigations further revealed that the attacker, Mohammad Shariq, initially targeted the then Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai’s programme and later wanted to blast it at a children’s fest organised by one of the institutions affiliated to the RSS.

--IANS

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