One of the main suspects behind the April 17 Bangalore bomb blast was nabbed on Friday in Kannur, Kerala, with the assistance of the Coimbatore City Police.
The eighth person from Coimbatore to be arrested in the Bangalore blast case, Zulfiquar Ali alias ‘Boxer’ Ali is suspected to have parked the explosive-laden motorcycle, according to police sources. He has been taken away to Bangalore.
The Karnataka police have already interrogated a few suspects lodged in Coimbatore Prison after being arrested for their alleged role in hurling a petrol explosive at Indu Makkal Katchi leader Arjun Sampath’s house on April 14.
A suspected Al-Umma activist, the police said Zulfiquar Ali had received training in bomb-making from Kichan Buhari, one of the prime accused in the blast case who was arrested in Madurai on April 23 by a special team of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka police.
Police are also probing the source of ammonium nitrate, the explosive used in bomb blast.
Zulfiquar Ali had also visited two convicts belonging to a fundamentalist outfit in Coimbatore Central Prison in the Coimbatore serial blasts case. He is suspected to have close links with some of the other persons arrested in this case from Coimbatore.
He was born in Coimbatore and his family hails from Kannur. He has a degree in Electrical and Electronics Engineering and was working in Coimbatore as a scrap dealer, police sources added.
The seven others hailing from Coimbatore arrested in the Bangalore blast case are: the prime accused Kichan Buhari, Rahmatullah, Syed Suleiman, Saddam Hussein, Olongo Suleiman, Askar Ali and Valayal Hakkim.
On April 17, as many as 17 persons, including 11 policemen, were injured in a bomb blast near the Bharatiya Janata Party’s office in Malleswaram ahead of the Legislative Assembly elections. The attackers rigged a motorcycle with ammonium nitrate.
