The Hindu : Huge arms haul in Bangalore

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Nov 10, 2002

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Huge arms haul in Bangalore

By Our Staff Reporter

The Karnataka Home Minister, Mallikarjun Kharge, looking at the bombs and other explosive devices seized by the police, in Bangalore on Saturday. With him are the DG & IGP, T.Madiyal (left), and the Commissioner of Police, M.D.Singh. (Inset) Two of the arrested, Vijaykumar (left) and Shiva Kumar. — Photo: T.L. Prabhakar.

BANGALORE NOV. 9. The Bangalore City Police have seized huge quantities of detonators, explosives and chemicals used for manufacturing improvised explosive devices from five Tamil militants, including one who has allegedly been trained by the People's Liberation Organisation of Tamil Eelam (PLOTE).

The Karnataka Home Minister, M. Mallikarjuna Kharge, told presspersons here today that 1200 electric detonators, 970 ordinary detonators, 2 kg of ammonium nitrate, 500 gm of potassium nitrate, nine hand grenades, 75 live rounds of ammunition and a bomb manufacturing manual were among the goods seized from the arrested militants.

Their motive and links with the militant groups were yet to be ascertained, Mr. Kharge and the City Police Commissioner, M. D. Singh, said.

One of the arrested, Vijay Kumar alias Vijay Murthy, a maintenance engineer with a private telecom firm here, had been trained in the use of explosives by PLOTE near Pudukkotai in Tamil Nadu in 1985, Mr. Singh said. "We are yet to find out for which militant group the accused are working.'' They were apparently planning to carry out some killings and had tried to test the explosives during Deepavali. Vijay had claimed that someone else had given him the explosives.

Police suspect that one of Vijay's absconding associates was involved in some acts of sabotage in Tamil Nadu.

Police in Tamil Nadu and the Intelligence Bureau had been alerted on the arrests and the seizures, Mr. Singh said.

On November 4, the Fraser Town Police Inspector, Rajendra Kumar, had arrested Vijay and Shiva Kumar, a painter, who were moving about in a suspicious manner.

On searching their houses, five sealed boxes containing a country-made revolver, grenade, gelatine sticks, three rounds of ammunition and some chemicals had been recovered.

On the basis of the information given by them, police arrested three of their accomplices, D. Kumar, a carpenter, Sreenivasan, private loan brokerage agent, and his relative Ravi, on Friday.

The huge stock of explosives were seized from a warehouse and the houses of the accused on Dickenson Road and Cookes Road here.

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