The city police are trying to ascertain if the arrested homoeopathic doctor, Syed Ismail Afaque, was the source of ammonium nitrate fuel oil (ANFO), an explosive used in several blasts allegedly carried out by Indian Mujahiddeen modules linked to Riyaz Bhatkal since 2010.
Police Commissioner M.N. Reddi, in a series of tweets on Sunday, said: “The interrogation of the accused is throwing light on the source of explosives in bomb blast cases after 2010. The arrest will fill the missing links in the investigation into various terror cases across the nation.”
A senior police official said the IM module had emerged as the most likely supplier of ANFO explosive for the 2010 M. Chinnaswamy Stadium blasts in Bengaluru, Pune German Bakery blast, 2011 Mumbai bombings, 2013 Dilsukhnagar blasts in Hyderabad, and Bodh Gaya temple bombings.
Earlier RDX was usedEarlier, the IM used RDX as the primary explosive, but the arrest of Jalaluddin Mullah alias Babu Bhai, a HuJI operative hailing from West Bengal and a supplier of RDX to IM, in 2007 led to the group turning to ANFO, according to investigators.
In many charge sheets filed by security agencies for various attacks since 2007, they have not been able to pin down the explosive trail and have only mentioned that they were sourced from coastal Karnataka.
The CCB sleuths now suspect that Afaque may be the new “Babu Bhai” of Riyaz Bhatkal.
The police are also not discounting the possibility of Afaque being a local explosive smuggler.