Abubacker Siddique, kingpin of 2013 Malleswaram BJP office blast, arrested by T.N. police
The police said that he is a member of Al Umma, a Tamil Nadu-based organisation, which was banned after a pipe bomb attack on veteran BJP leader L.K. Advani in Coimbatore in 1998.
On April 17, 2023, a time bomb placed on an old bike exploded in front of the BJP office, injuring a total of 17, including a college-going girl, who sustained severe injuries to her leg.
The Central Crime Branch (CCB), Bengaluru city police, which investigated the case, unearthed a terror module allegedly put together by Abubacker Siddique from the remnants of Al Umma. The organisation was known to target only Hindutva activists, organisations and establishments.
'The bike on which the time bomb was placed led us to a used bike dealer in Tamil Nadu, who gave the number of one of those who bought the said bike. The SIM card was also stolen. But using technical analysis, we made the first arrests, and their interrogation led us to unravel the entire module,' a senior police official involved in the probe into the blast recalled.
Tamil Nadu police were probing a series of targeted murders of Hindutva activists in the State in 2013, when the bomb blast happened in front of the BJP office in Bengaluru. The same module busted by the city police turned out to be behind those cases as well.
Following the initial arrests, including that of Kichan Buhari, one of the key conspirators, three other key accused in the case - Panna Ismail, Police Fakruddin and Bilal Mallik - were arrested after a fierce gun battle in which an accused and a police officer were injured in Puttur, Chittoor district, Andhra Pradesh. Panna Ismail had parked the explosive-laden bike in front of the BJP office, the police said.
'Their interrogation revealed that the leader of the module, who had put it together, was Abubacker Siddique, who had been on the run since 1995. Siddique was a shadowy figure, known to be very radicalised. There were many alarming reports about him. Some reports even suggested that it was linked to Al Qaeda and is said to have gone and fought in the Afghan war against American forces post 9/11. All efforts to nab him did not yield any results,' a senior police official from the State, who pursued the elusive terror operative for many years, said.
Abubacker Siddique has been listed as an absconding accused in the BJP office blast case chargesheet. The officials said that the city police will shortly move the court to seek his custody in the case.
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