Terrorists behind pipe-bomb plot targeting L K Advani held after 30 years

Terrorist Abubacker Siddique, involved in the 2011 pipe-bomb planting attempt during former Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani's rath yatra in Madurai, was arrested from his hideout in Andhra Pradesh after 30 years, police said on Tuesday.

He was involved in several bomb blasts in south India and was arrested by the Tamil Nadu's Anti Terrorism Squad from his hideout in Annamayya district, they said.

The police have been searching for Siddique of Nagore for three decades and a reward of Rs 5 lakh was announced for anyone who finds him. Another fugitive Mohammed Ali alias Yunus alias Mansoor of Tirunelveli was also arrested along with the 60-year-old Siddique, police said in a statement here.

"They were involved in multiple bomb blasts and communal murders and have been evading the police dragnet for three decades," the statement said.

They were arrested following a tip-off and with the assistance from the central intelligence agencies that were tracking the terrorists for a long time.

Abubacker was accused in several high-profile terror cases, including the 1995 bomb blast at the office of the Hindu Munnani, Chintadripet, here, parcel bomb explosion that killed T Muthukrishnan, a Hindu right-wing activist in Nagore, the same year, and the 1999 coordinated planting of bombs at the Chennai Police Commissioner's office, Egmore, here, and six other locations including Tiruchirappalli, Coimbatore and Kerala.

He was suspected for his role in the 2011 pipe-bomb planting attempt in Madurai during the rath yatra of Advani, the 2012 murder of Dr Arvind Reddy in Vellore, and the 2013 bomb blast near the BJP office at Malleswaram in Bengaluru, police said.

Mohammed Ali, his associate, has been on the run for 26 years, and was said to be involved in the 1999 multiple bomb planting in Tamil Nadu and Kerala. Both would be produced before a judicial magistrate and remanded, police said.