Shivakumar questions Mangaluru blast probe

Speaking to the reporters on Thursday, DK Shivakumar said, “Hours after the Mangaluru blast, the ruling government and DGP immediately declared it a terrorist activity without any investigation, as if it was similar to the Mumbai terror attack.”

Karnataka Congress president DK Shivakumar on Thursday said that the BJP government and the director general of police(DGP) Praveen Sood are damaging the state’s image on a global level.

Karnataka Congress president DK Shivakumar said that the Mangaluru blast was declared a terror activity without an investigation. (PTI)

The Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) president also said that the Mangaluru blast was declared a terror activity without an investigation.

Speaking to the reporters on Thursday, DK Shivakumar said, “Hours after the Mangaluru blast, the ruling government and DGP immediately declared it a terrorist activity without any investigation, as if it was similar to the Mumbai terror attack. How can the police call someone a terrorist without even a basic investigation? If it was a terror attack, why did not they immediately hand over the case to National Investigation Agency (NIA). BJP government is used to diverting the main issues by creating panic among the public.”

The senior Congress leader also said that such irresponsible acts would only slow down the development of the state.

“None of the investors are interested in investing in Mangaluru and Udupi region because of the panic created by police and the government. It is a danger sign for the growth of the state,” added DK Shivakumar.

“Congress is stooping to a new low every day in the state. Sadly, DK Shivakumar is doing politics over a terror attack. He attempts to demoralise the police department,” said Jnandendra.

On November 19, an explosion was reported in an auto-rickshaw in Mangaluru, injuring the driver and the passenger. A day after the blast in Mangaluru, in which two people, including Shariq, were injured, state police chief Praveen Sood on November 20 had declared the incident an “act of terror to cause serious damage”.

During the probe, police identified Shariq as the bomber. According to police, videos on how to make a bike bomb and a cooker bomb were recovered from Shariq’s phone. The investigation pointed out that the nature of the IED shows that the group did not have enough funding or support. Police identified the material used to make the IED has potassium chlorate, which is used to manufacture match boxes and crackers.

The police have recovered 150 matchboxes, sulphur powder and gunpowder from a Mysuru house where Shariq stayed earlier.

After the National Investigation Agency (NIA) took over the case, two old cases involving him became of interest to the investigating agency. Police arrested Shariq in December 2020. The arrest was the result of an investigation into pro-terror graffiti on the walls of a building in the East police station limits and on a wall in the North police station limits. Police arrested Shariq and Mazz Muneer Ahmed, aka, Mazz, who was then 21 years old.

It was two years later, in September, Shariq’s name cropped up in another terror-related case. Shivamogga police on September 23 had said that two associates of a person arrested in connection with the stabbing incident during a clash over Hindutva ideologue Vinayak Damodar Savarkar’s poster in Shivamogga on August 15 have links to the Islamic State.

One of the four arrested men told police that Mazz, who was arrested along with Shariq in the graffiti case, was an associate. When police took Mazz into custody, he told police that, along with Shariq, he had conducted trial bomb blasts along the banks of the Tungabhadra river.

Explaining the findings of the investigation, a senior officer said that in the days following Independence Day, the national flag was burnt near the spot where the bomb experimented, and it was video graphed on their mobile phones.

“The accused profess the ideology of Islamic State. They were of the view that India got independence merely from the British. But the real independence would be achieved only after establishing a caliphate in the forests of Karnataka and enforcing Sharia law.” the officer said.