Probe teams get vital leads in Malappuram blasts

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) and the Kerala Police teams probing the November 1 Malappuram Collectorate bomb blast here, have got vital leads in the case, according to sources in the know of things.

A team of NIA officials on early Friday located a four-wheeler parked in the compound of a religious institution at Taliparambu, near Kannur which they believe was used by those behind the blast.

The bomb, kept in a pressure cooker, was placed beside the vehicle of a state government official who had come for a routine meeting at the District Collectorate office. There were no casualties or damage in the incident.

The probe team has found out that the pressure cooker was manufactured in Chennai and had no sales outlets here.

Soon after the blast took place, the police was able to recover a pen drive and a map of India kept in a box with a slip bearing the name 'The Base Movement'.

On Friday, Additional Director General of Police B. Sandhya arrived at the site where the explosion took place and held discussions with the probe team.

Meanwhile, a team of the Kerala Police officials reached the home of the banned organisation Al-Ummah chief Abu Bakr Siddique at Nagapattinam in Tamil Nadu as the police suspect that 'The Base Movement' is Al-Ummah's new version.

The police is now working with a person who is understood to have seen a person leaving the 'bomb' beside the vehicle, but not much headway has been made to draw a sketch of that person.

The probe teams have already identified that the same group of people is behind similar blasts that took place in Kollam, Nellore and Mysuru.

--IANS

sg/sm/rn