In the last four years, the module that came to be called the Thirthahalli Module, is alleged to have carried out two IED blasts in Karnataka — the cooker blast in 2022 in Mangaluru and the blast at The Rameshwaram Cafe in Bengaluru on March 1.
The alleged module was allegedly put together by Abdul Matheen Ahmed Taaha, 30, and Mussavir Hussain Shazib, 30, both hailing from Thirthahalli, both arrested near Kolkata, West Bengal, in connection with The Rameshwaram Cafe blast case. With most of the known associates of the duo already arrested, have their arrests now “neutralised” the Thirthahalli module, is a question security agencies are now looking at.
Absconding since 2020
The duo had been absconding since 2020, when they were accused in the Islamic State (IS)-inspired Al-Hind module case, where a module sought to start an insurgency like IS from the jungles of South India. While on the run they put together the Thirthahalli module, radicalising youth from their hometown.
Maaz Muneer Ahmed, Mohammed Shariq, Syed Yasin, Arafath Ali and all their associates have been arrested in multiple terror cases — pro-terror graffiti in Mangaluru in 2020, an IED trial blast in Shivamogga, and a cooker blast in Mangaluru in 2022. Taaha and Hussain were named as accused in all these cases.
“With the arrest of these two kingpins, all those we know of being members of this module have been arrested and we hope this will neutralise this module. However, the duo have been travelling around the country for the past four years giving agencies a slip. We have seen their footprints in Mumbai, Ratnagiri, Nellore, Hyderabad, Chennai, Assam and now West Bengal. They are highly-motivated people and there is a chance that they may have radicalised and recruited more people in other places where they are known to have been. That will be part of the investigation now,” said a senior police official from Karnataka, who has probed multiple cases involving the module.
However, the official added that Abdul Matheen Taahaa and Mussavir Hussain Shazib had used their recruits to carry out terror incidents earlier and Hussain had himself come and planted the IED at the restaurant on March 1, indicating that they may haven’t had more expendable recruits. “This raises hopes that there aren’t any left in the module and with the arrest of the duo, the module is neutralised,” he said.
The elusive “Colonel”
A probe into cases in which the Thirthahalli module is allegedly involved in, security agencies have come across a man only known as “Colonel”, who is yet to be identified. “We are not sure of the identity of this Colonel who crops up in the probes related to the module. This could be a handler of the module. There are some suspects, including some absconding accused in terror cases. But it could also be one of the two arrested now,” a senior official said.
The interrogation of the duo arrested now will focus on unravelling their network, their sources of funding and their possible handlers, an official said.
