Coimbatore link in Mangaluru blast: Prime accused stayed in Tamil Nadu, purchased SIM card there

Chennai: Preliminary investigation into Saturday’s auto rickshaw blast in Karnataka’s coastal Mangaluru district has revealed that one of the prime suspects in the case Mohammed Shariq had stayed in Coimbatore in western Tamil Nadu in September and had also purchased a mobile phone SIM card there. 

The revelation has shocked the police as only last month, Jameesha Mubin, a young terror suspect, was killed near a temple in Coimbatore when his car exploded. Later, police had found he had links with the Islamic State and had actually planned suicide attacks in the communally fragile industrial city. 

The Tamil Nadu police are now probing if Shariq was in touch with Mubin as well. 

Tamil Nadu Director General of Police C Sylendra Babu confirmed that Shariq had purchased the SIM card in Coimbatore using the Aadhaar card details of an acquaintance Surendran of the neighbouring Nilgiris district. Surendran has been detained but he has told the police that though the SIM card was used using his Aadhaar card details, he had no knowledge about Shariq’s disruptive plans. 

According to the DGP, though there is no conclusive proof of any links between the accused in the Mangaluru and Coimbatore blast cases, the police are tracing the call records and locations visited by Shariq in recent months. 

Police believe Shariq could have travelled to some other parts of Tamil Nadu as well. He had stayed in a mansion in Coimbatore in the first week of September but was not under the police radar. 

Meanwhile, the police have stepped up vigil across the check posts bordering Tamil Nadu to prevent intrusion of any extremist elements.