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Bangalore IM bombers held in Meghalaya
Troops of the Border Security Force caught two Kerala-based operatives of the Indian Mujahideen (IM) in Meghalaya after they tried to sneak in early Wednesday morning.
Troops of the Border Security Force caught two Kerala-based operatives of the Indian Mujahideen (IM) in Meghalaya after they tried to sneak in early Wednesday morning.
The two - Siraj Samsuddin (35) and T Nasir (25) - are suspected to have been involved in the serial bombing of Bengaluru in July 2008 that killed over 15 persons. They are also accused of killing IIT professor MC Puri on the Indian Institute of Science campus in Bangalore in December 2005.
"Our men caught Samsuddin, 35, and T some 400 metres inside border post number 1272/6 in East Khasi Hills district around 1 am. We handed the two, both from Kannur in Kerala, over to the Pynursla police station," said BSF spokesman Ravi Gandhi from Shillong.
The duo's arrest is a rare outcome of intelligence sharing between the BSF and the Bangladesh Rangers.
Senior Meghalaya police officials said the two confessed to being key IM operatives. "There's little doubt about their involvement in the Bangalore bombings, but we are trying to find out more about their background and links with external terror agencies," a senior officer said declining to be quoted.
A group of terrorists had on December 28, 2005, stormed into the IISc campus and fired indiscriminately killing Puri, professor emeritus of Mathematics Department of IIT Delhi and injuring four others.
On July 25, 2008, six simultaneous blasts ripped Bangalore and left over 15 people dead. The serial blasts were pinned on the IM, which had come into existence in May that year after the Jaipur bombings.
IM is believed to be a "shadow amalgam" of the Students Islamic Movement of India and the Lashkar-e-Toiba.
