Members of a home-grown terror outfit who call themselves the ‘Base Movement’ have been arrested by the NIA in Madurai. The arrests were made as part of the probe into the blasts that occurred outside several court premises in south India in April this year.
Five people have been taken into custody for allegedly being involved in the conspiracy to carry out the bomb explosions. One of the members has told interrogators that they believe that Al-Qaeda’s ideology is the only way to ‘Islamise’ the country and are against the ‘barbaric practices propagated by ISIS’, reported The Hindu.
At a time when there is a huge traction towards Syria-Iraq based terror group IS, the group says they want to follow Al-Qaeda’s path, a senior Home Ministry official told the newspaper. The report added that the accused said their aim was to spread fear and not to kill, hence, the explosive devices were of low intensity and placed so as to not cause any casualties.
Two of the accused were arrested on Tuesday and the three others on Monday by the NIA along with police forces from Tamil Nadu and Telangana for the five bomb blast cases in court premises in Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka since April.
The two suspects nabbed on Tuesday were identified as Mohammed Ayub Ali, 25, of Madurai – who works as a public liaison officer for a hearing aid company – and Shamsudeen, 25, also a resident of Madurai. Those arrested on Monday were identified as M Khareem, Asif Sultan Mohammed and Abbas Ali.
The cases relate to blasts inside a vehicle in the parking area at a district court complex in Chittoor, Andhra Pradesh, on 7 April; in a parking area of the CJM Court Complex at Kollam in Kerala on 15 June; inside a court complex at Mysuru on 1 August; in Nellore in Andhra Pradesh on 12 September; and inside a toilet complex on the judicial court premises in Malappuram, Kerala, on 1 November.
According to police, they allegedly planned to attack 22 top leaders of the country, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
They were also allegedly involved in threatening embassies of various countries in India.
This group has nothing to do with Al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS), the Indian arm of Al-Qaeda that was created in 2013. They were only inspired by the terrorist outfit.Senior official told The Hindu
The NIA were also looking for two other suspected Base Movement operatives, Hakeem and Dawood Suleiman, said the police.
Suleiman used to work in a software firm. He was the leader of the terrorist group which has been inspired by Osama bin Laden’s ideology .
The group had claimed responsibility for these blasts and circulated pamphlets, pen drives and CDs in the name of the Base Movement.
(With inputs from PTI and The Hindu)
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