NIA, State police on hunt for 15 expert bomb maker

Highly placed sources told DTNext that 15 fundamentalist group members, who have received expert training in bomb-making are now active in the state and the arrests that were made on Monday were just the beginning.

“We had booked FIRs against all six members of the Base Movement, who were arrested in Madurai and Chennai on Monday for sending bomb threats to all Central Prisons in Tamil Nadu in 2015. We will record their arrests in these cases after they are produced in connection with five bomb blast cases,” a senior Tamil Nadu police official told DTNext . The NIA, Andhra police and Tamil Nadu police together had arrested six persons, five in Madurai and one in Chennai, who are members of Base Movement, an Al-Qaida inspired movement in Tamil Nadu. The police team arrested NM Abbas Ali (27), Samsu Karim Raja, MT Ayub Ali (25), S Shamsudheen alias Karwa (25) and Mohammed Ayub (25) from Madurai. Dawood Suleiman (23) a native of Madurai was arrested at Tiruvanmiyur, Chennai. 

“More arrests will follow in the coming weeks. We have identified 15 more members who are capable of making explosives and carrying out attacks,” the state police official said. Police said many of these expert bomb makers have technological expertise and could be working in leading technology companies in the state. Meanwhile, NIA officials said Shamsudheen alias Karwa and Abbas were involved in bomb making for the Base Movement, which carried out blast attacks in five lower courts in three states.  NIA sources said Samsudheen, the only member with an Al Umma connection among the six arrested, was a good friend of Al Umma hardliner Bilal Malik. 

“During interrogation, he had told us that he was trained in bomb making personally by Bilal Malik, who was earlier arrested from Andhra Pradesh for plotting to murder former BJP President LK Advani. NIA officials said it was Abbas who formed the group in January 2015. “Abbas and Shamsudheen made bombs whereas Dawooed drafted the electronic propaganda,” the NIA official said. Police said Shamusudheen, who was also a local rowdy, collected money for their activity by forcefully collecting ‘mamool’ (protection money) and Abbas collected money under the pretext of charity from visitors at places of worship.