ATS granted transit remand of 2005 Bengaluru terror suspect

The Karnataka Anti Terror Squad (ATS) on Saturday took on four-day transit remand a suspected terrorist connected to the 2005 terror attack at Bengaluru's Indian Institute of Science (IIS), police said.

The transit remand of suspect Habib Mia, 37, was given by West Tripura District Magistrate and Collector Milind Ramteke late afternoon, before the ATS took him to Bengaluru in the evening.

A Tripura police official said the ATS earlier produced the suspect before a civil judge here but was again presented before Ramteke to fulfil some legal formalities.

A large numbers of Mia's relatives and family members along with some local Muslim leaders gathered on the court premises when Agartala Civil Judge Chhandita Debnath was hearing the transit remand plea.

"Two Assistant Commissioner-rank officials of the Karnataka ATS, with Tripura Police help, arrested Mia from Jogendranagar late Friday evening," a senior police official told IANS on condition of anonymity.

Mia is a resident of Jogendranagar on the city outskirts.

He said: "He is one of the seven persons wanted and charge-sheeted in connection with the attack on IIS at Bengaluru in 2005. He will be presented in a Bengaluru court for police custody for further questioning."

The IIS attack on the evening of December 28, 2005, occured as the 38th annual convention of Operational Research Society of India was underway. Eyewitness accounts said it was carried out by a lone gunman in fatigues, who used an AK-47 rifle and hand grenades.

A retired Mathematics Professor Munish Chandra Puri was killed and four others, including a woman, were seriously injured in the IIS attack.

--IANS

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