In a major breakthrough, a special team of the Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) of the Tamil Nadu Police arrested two notorious terror suspects from a hideout in neighbouring Andhra Pradesh.
Representational Image (IANS)
In a major breakthrough, a special team of the Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) of the Tamil Nadu Police arrested two notorious terror suspects from a hideout in neighbouring Andhra Pradesh. The duo was involved in multiple bomb blasts and communal murders, and had been evading the police dragnet for over three decades,
The duo, Abubacker Siddique and Mohammed Ali alias Mansoor, were apprehended from Annamayya district in Andhra Pradesh, following a tip-off and assistance from Central Intelligence agencies, which were tracking them for long. Both had a cash reward of Rs 5 lakh on their heads.
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On the run since 1995, Abubacker, a native of the Muslim pilgrim town of Nagore, is an accused in many high-profile terror cases, including the 1995 bomb blast at the office of Hindu Munnani (Hindu Front), an RSS affiliate, in Chintadripet in Chennai.
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Other cases against him include parcel bomb explosion that killed one T Muthukrishnan, a Hindu right-wing activist in Nagore; the 1999 coordinated planting of bombs at Chennai Police Commissioner’s Office at Egmore and six other locations including Trichy and Coimbatore and one in Kerala; the 2011 pipe-bomb attempt in Madurai during the Rath yatra of BJP stalwart LK Advani; the 2012 murder of Dr Arvind Reddy in Vellore and the 2013 bomb blast near the BJP office at Malleshwaram in Bengaluru.
His associate, Mohammed Ali, a native of Melapalayam in Tirunelveli and absconding for 26 years, is arraigned in the 1999 multiple bomb plantings in Tamil Nadu and Kerala.
An official press release here said, the duo would be produced before a judicial magistrate for being remanded to custody. According to a senior ATS official, the operation resulting in the arrest of the duo reflected the determination of the police in relentlessly pursuing terror suspects and bringing them to justice. Further investigation is on to unearth additional terror links of the duo.
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