New Delhi: Tamil Nadu police have identified the man who died in the bomb blast in Ukkadam in the state’s Coimbatore district on Sunday, October 23, as one Jamesha Mubin (25) and reportedly recovered materials used to make explosives from his residence.
However, the motive behind the blast and whether it was deliberate or accidental is not as yet known.
Mubin died in a car outside the Kottai Eswaran temple in Ukkadam on Sunday after an LPG cylinder in the vehicle exploded. An investigation into the incident was triggered after the police discovered Mubin’s identity and because the blast took place close to a temple.
“There was a police check post which is manned 24×7. He was unable to cross the check post, and we think the explosion could have taken place as he was trying to escape from the spot. We are still investigating the case,” the News Minute quoted Tamil Nadu director general of police (DGP) Sylendra Babu as saying.
While the DGP said that the potential target of the attack is also not known as yet, he noted that the low-intensity explosives recovered from his residence indicate that he was planning something in the future. The substances recovered include sulphur, potassium nitrate, aluminium powder and charcoal – all of which are used to make improvised explosives.
What’s more, Mubin, an engineering graduate, had been questioned by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in 2019 for his links to Zahran Hashim, the mastermind behind the Easter Sunday suicide blasts in Sri Lanka that killed almost 270 people that year. Mubin, however, never had a case registered against him.
Also read: How the Easter Bombings Left Sri Lanka’s Muslims With No Path Forward
A source cited by the Indian Express said that Mubin had been attending classes at a Coimbatore mosque linked to Mohammed Azarudeen who had direct contact with Hashim and who was arrested following the Sri Lanka blasts and charged with recruiting youths from Tamil Nadu and Kerala. He was also thought to have links with the Islamic State’s (IS) Tamil Nadu chapter.
The Express report also notes that four men were captured by CCTV cameras carrying a heavy object out of Mubin’s residence at 11:25 pm on Saturday – presumably one of the LPG cylinders that caused the blast in his car. The three other men – apart from Mubin – are still reportedly at large.
The News Minute report, however, notes that some people Mubin had been in contact with before Sunday’s blast have been taken into custody. Additionally, six special police teams have been constituted to investigate the case and police presence has been stepped up in the district.
While the police have not yet deemed the blast a terror attack for want of evidence, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) state president K. Annamalai, alleging failures on the part of the state’s intelligence units, claimed it was a “clear cut terror attack with ISIS links” and called upon chief minister M.K. Stalin to “come out of hiding”.
The accused who died during the course of planning this attack had clear cut links to ISIS & was handled from outside the country.
Still some of the elements are active in TN soil. Go mercilessly after these nodes.@CMOTamilnadu,pls come out of your hiding and own your failure
— K.Annamalai (@annamalai_k) October 23, 2022