TN ATS arrests two absconding terror suspects in AP

Tirupati: Tamil Nadu Anti-terrorism Squad (ATS) sleuths arrested two absconding terror suspects at Annamayya district in Andhra Pradesh. Acting on specific intelligence, a special team from the Tamil Nadu ATS apprehended Abubacker Siddique and his close aide Mohammed Ali alias Yunus Mansoor at their hideout at Annamayya district.

Both Abubacker Siddique and Mohammed Ali carry a reward of Rs 5 lakh each and have been on the run for close to three decades now. A native of Nagore in Nagapattinam district of Tamil Nadu, Abubacker is a key accused in several high profile terror cases registered in Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Karnataka.

Abubacker was involved in the 1995 blast executed at the Hindu Munnani office (RSS affiliate) at Chintadripet, a parcel bomb explosion in Nagore in 1995 in which one Thangam Muthukrishnan was killed. He was also accused in the coordinated bomb blasts targeting police facilities in Tamil Nadu and Kerala in 1999. Abubacker was also accused in the pipe bomb planting attempt during former deputy prime minister L K Advani's Rath Yatra at Madurai in 2011.

Abubacker was also a suspect in the murder of Dr Aravind Reddy at Vellore in 2012 and in the blasts at the BJP local office at Malleswaram in Bengaluru in 2013. Similarly, Mohammed Ali, an explosives expert, was also a key accused in the coordinated blasts targeting police facilities in TN and Kerala in 1999.

The duo were shifted to Tamil Nadu amidst tight security. They will be produced before the judicial magistrate for remand to custody by the Tamil Nadu ATS.