Coimbatore car blast: NIA makes 3 more arrests; unearths funding for suicide bombing

The National Investigation Agency has arrested three more persons in connection with the Coimbatore car blast case, increasing the total number of arrests in the case to 18. The central agency has also unearthed how the suicide bombing that shook Tamil Nadu in 2022 was funded.

In a statement, NIA said, “NIA on Monday arrested three more accused in the October 2022 ISIS-inspired car bomb blast case at Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu. With the arrest of Aboo Hanifa, Saran Mariappan and Pavas Rahman, NIA has unearthed the terror financing angle in the case.” NIA has so far arrested 18 persons in the case and has filed charge-sheets against 14 in Chennai Court.

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As per the agency, Aboo Hanifa was employed as a faculty at Kovai Arabic College, where Jamesha Mubeen and other arrested accused persons got radicalised in ISIS ideology. “NIA investigations have revealed that the three accused arrested on Monday had colluded with one other to provide funds for the commission of the terror act,” it said.

The central agency said prior to carrying out the Coimbatore terror attack, Jamesha Mubeen had sworn allegiance by giving "bayath" to Abu-Al-Hasan Al-Hashimi Al-Qurashi, the then self-styled Calipha of ISIS.

The car explosion on the eve of Deepavali in 2022 shook Tamil Nadu. What prima facie appeared as a domestic gas cylinder explosion later developed into a terror case after police seized explosives from deceased Jameesha Mubeen’s house. According to police, 75kg of explosives, including potassium nitrate were seized from Mubeen’s residence in raids a day after. The blast happened when the car Mubeen was driving was moving past a temple in communally sensitive Ukkadam area in Coimbatore. Separately, the NIA is also probing the radicalization of youth.