Coimbatore car blast | Accused Jameesha Mubin planned suicide attacks, says NIA

Agency conducts searches at 43 locations in T.N. and one place in Kerala; it says Mubin, who died in Coimbatore explosion, conspired to cause extensive damage to monuments of a particular faith

National Investigation Agency officials leave a tenement at Kottaimedu in Coimbatore on November 10, 2022 after a visit as part of searches conducted in the wake of the car blast in front of Sangameswarar temple in the city on October 23, 2022. | Photo Credit: M. Periasamy

The National Investigation Agency on November 10 said Jameesha Mubin, the deceased suspect in the Coimbatore bomb blast case, had planned suicide attacks to cause extensive damage to symbols and monuments of a particular religious faith.

The agency said preliminary investigation revealed that Mubin, after taking ‘ bayath’ or oath to serve Islamic State (IS), was planning to carry out suicide attacks to strike terror among a particular section of community.

The six accused persons arrested in this case so far had allegedly conspired with Mubin to procure different chemicals and other ingredients for fabrication of Improvised Explosive Devices (IED), including an vehicle-borne IED, from online shopping platforms to commit terrorist acts, the NIA said.

Statewide searches

The NIA on Thursday conducted simultaneous searches at several places across Tamil Nadu and one place in Kerala in the follow up to the Coimbatore bomb blast case.

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Special teams of the Central agency commenced searches with the backup of local police on the premises of persons they suspected of being IS activists or sympathisers.

Investigators were acting on inputs from intelligence agencies and information revealed by suspects arrested in the car explosion case, the sources said.

Sources in the NIA said that the searches were conducted at 43 locations in Chennai, Coimbatore, Tiruvallur, Tirupur, Nilgiris, Chengalpattu, Kancheepuram and Nagapattinam and Palakkad in Kerala.

The searches pertained to the case in which the bomb blast in a car laden with explosives occurred in front of Kottai Eswaran temple of Coimbatore district October 23, 2022, the sources said.

During the searches, digital devices and incriminating documents, were seized from the houses of the suspects.

The NIA also conducted searches at Kollangode near Palakkad. The team raided the house of Shaikh Mustafa at Chappakkad, Muthalamada. Mustafa has been staying in Coimbatore. The team seized phones and other digital devices from the house. The searches lasted for about three hours.

Mustafa is a relative of Riyas Aboobacker, who was arrested in 2019 for his alleged connections with the IS. NIA sources said they were investigating possible links of Mustafa with the Coimbatore and Sri Lanka blasts.