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B’luru bombers caught after a 42-day manhunt
Both are alleged to be associated with the ISIS Shivamogga module, and were on agency’s radar since 2020, said an official at the agency
New Delhi The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Friday arrested the person who planted a bomb on March 1 at Bengaluru’s Rameshwaram Cafe and the mastermind behind the terror strike, both near Kolkata, ending a 42-day-long cross-country multi-agency manhunt.
The low-intensity bomb injured nine people. Abdul Matheen Taha (30), the alleged mastermind, and Mussavir Hussain Shazib (30), who planted the bomb, were tracked down in the early hours on Friday and were arrested by an NIA team under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, or UAPA.
Both are alleged to be associated with the IS Shivamogga module, and were on agency’s radar since 2020, said an official at the agency who didn’t want to be named.
“In a significant development, the absconders in Rameswaram Cafe blast case, Adbul Matheen Taha and Mussavir Hussain Shazib, were traced out to their hideout near Kolkata and were apprehended by the NIA team,” an NIA spokesperson said in a statement. “Shazib is the accused who placed the IED (improvised explosive device) at the cafe and Taha is the mastermind behind the planning, execution of blast and subsequent evasion from the clutches of law,” the spokesperson added. They were arrested early morning on Friday.
In the course of the manhunt, the federal agency on March 29 released photographs of the two after scanning footage from hundreds of CCTVs in Bengaluru, Chennai and other cities; it also announced a reward of ₹10 lakh for each of them. Investigators say that a cap left by Shazib at the cafe took them to a Chennai mall from where it was bought.
Apart from releasing their pictures, NIA carried out searches at 18 locations in Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh last month, and even questioned several of their old acquaintances and friends from their college and school days.
The official cited in the first instance said that investigations have revealed that Taha and Shazib, both residents of Thirthahalli in Shivamogga (Karnataka), spent some time in January and February this year in Chennai before planing the bomb on March 1.
One of their associates, Muzammil Shareef, a resident of Chikkamagaluru, was arrested on March 27 for allegedly providing logistics support such as cell phones, fake SIM cards etc. used to plan and execute the attack. Another member of the Shivamogga IS module, Maaz Muneer Ahmed, was taken into custody by NIA from the Bengaluru central prison in the second week of March and was interrogated in the case.
According to officials, Maaz Ahmed, 25, was indoctrinated by another accused, Arafath Ali, on the instructions of Taha and Shabiz. Ahmed wrote graffiti in support of terror groups such as Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) at two places in Mangaluru in November 2020.
The same module was behind the November 19, 2022 pressure cooker blast in an auto-rickshaw — the bomb was meant for the Kadri Manjunatha Temple in Mangaluru but the bomber in that case, Mohammad Shariq, was himself injured in the blast as the IED accidentally exploded on the way. Shariq was taken into custody.
Other members in this module include Syed Yasin, Reeshan Tajuddin Sheikh, Huzair Farhan Baig, Mazin Abdul Rahman, Nadeem Ahmed, Mohammed Zabilulla and Mohammed Faizal, officials said.
The bomb went off at the busy Rameswaram Cafe and prompted a multi-agency probe. A preliminary investigation zeroed in on a man who left a bag near the cash counter. CCTV footage showed the suspect, now identified as Shazib, carrying a backpack, wearing a full-sleeved shirt, cap, facemask, and spectacles, travelling in a bus in Tumakuru after the blast.
Police recovered a battery and a timer from the blast site, indicating that the explosion was planned. Visuals from the immediate aftermath of the blast showed panicked people running away from the explosion site, sheltering themselves from shattered glass, strewn furniture, smoke, and fire.
A case was registered under the anti-terror law UAPA and the Explosives Act .
A second officer, who also asked not to be named, said Taha and Shazib, who had planned similar attacks in Mangaluru as well in 2022, were living near Kolkata under false identities.
“The pursuit of the two accused was successfully and ably supported by energetic co-ordinated action and co-operation between NIA, central intelligence agencies, and state police agencies of West Bengal, Telangana, Karnataka, and Kerala police,” the NIA spokesperson said Friday.
The agency, in a press statement, said it was Taha “who worked on the escape plan and managed to evade arrest”.
“The duo, along with their co-accused Maaz Muneer Ahmed, were also involved in terror cases earlier,” the spokesperson said.
It was coordinating with police departments of Karnataka, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana in the matter, the agency spokesperson added. After receiving information that the two suspects were staying in a lodge near Kolkata under assumed identities, NIA requested the West Bengal police to secure the accused and the latter responded promptly, leading to a successful culmination of the search operation and apprehension of both terrorists, he said
They were produced before a special court in Kolkata that granted a three-day transit remand.
The arrests set off a political firestorm in West Bengal with BJP leader of opposition Suvendu Adhikari saying, “It is being proved time and again that West Bengal is a safe haven for terrorists.”
West Bengal chief minister and Trinamool Congress president Mamata Banerjee, however, responded quickly and said at an election rally in Dinhata in Cooch Behar: “I have heard a BJP leader saying that Bengal is not safe. The accused were arrested within two hours following a prompt response by the police. The blast took place in Bengaluru and the accused are from Karnataka...our police apprehended them.”
