In what the police claimed to be a major counter-terrorism operation, three alleged Indian Mujahideen (IM) operatives were arrested on Thursday — two from a flat in Cox Town area of the city and one from a house in Bhatkal town, Uttara Kannada district.
Sources said the arrest was the result of a simultaneous swoop on multiple locations based on IB inputs. The police claim they have recovered a huge cache of explosives and bomb-making material from the house in Bhatkal.
City Police Commissioner M.N. Reddi, announcing the arrests, said the module prima facie had no links to the December 28, 2014, Church Street blast. He said the arrests were made based on specific leads. However, he added that nothing could be ruled out at this stage, and a further probe was on.
Mr. Reddi said police raided a house in Cox Town from where they arrested Syed Ismail Afaq (34) and Saddam Hussein (35), and recovered laptops, mobile phones and incriminating communication equipment. Abdus Subur (24), an MBA student in Bhatkal, was arrested from a house, from where the police recovered “substantial quantities of explosives”. “The arrested are suspected to be members of the IM and are also in touch with other splinter terror modules,” he said.
