Kovai car blast: Notes, others indicate radicalisation, says police

COIMBATORE: Handwritten notes indicating radicalisation, IS-related symbols and classification of people are among the material recovered from the house of Jamesha Mubin, a man killed in a car explosion in this city on October 23, an incident that has sent shock waves across the state and raised apprehensions of a possible terror angle into the blast.

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) is now probing the case, even as the City Police had earlier included the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act in the FIR regarding the incident.

"Allahuvin illathinmeedhu kai vaithal veraruppom" (Those who touch the home of Allah will be uprooted) written in Tamil on a slate was recovered from the house of Mubin.

Other documents seized from Mubin's house by the city police, which initially probed the matter and some strong writings on 'Jihad', diagram of a flag of terror outfit ISIS and classification of mankind as "Muslims" and "Kafirs", point to possible radicalisation, police sources said.

The authorities also found a handwritten note that said, "Jihad is the duty of the youth and not that of children and elders", while there were some references from the Holy Quran also, the sources added.

The NIA, which has taken over the investigation, may intensify the probe based on these "authentic documents", police said. Mubin had been questioned by the national agency in 2019.

On October 23, a day ahead of Deepavali, a gas cylinder exploded in the car Mubin was travelling in, charring him to death. The incident happened outside the Kottai Eswaran Temple in Ukkadam, a communally senstive area in the city.

During searches, police had recovered 75 kg of low-intensity explosives from Mubin's house, even as the state BJP has been insisting it was a "terror attack" and that the deceased person was an IS sympathiser.

As many as six associates of Mubin have been arrested so far.