Preliminary probe in Mangaluru autorickshaw blast indicates use of IED

The IED was being carried in a bag, which was being transported by a passenger who hired the autorickshaw to travel to a crowded part of Mangaluru city, police sources said. The IED, however, exploded on the lap of the passenger mid-journey causing nearly 40 per cent burns to his upper body and injuries to the auto-driver, the sources said.

The antecedents of the passenger, who has been identified as a local of the Mangaluru region by the local police, are being verified. The passenger reportedly provided a Hindu name for himself to the police but investigations have reportedly found the name to be a fake one, said the sources.

The IED comprised a 5 kg pressure cooker, small amounts of explosives – which are yet to be identified, nuts and bolts meant to be projectiles, a circuit linked to a timing device, and a bulb filament – which acted as the detonator when the circuit was closed by the timer, said sources familiar with the investigations. Three batteries powered the circuit, they said.

The IED is similar in structure to devices used by a little-known group called ‘Base Movement’ – comprising cadre from radical Muslim groups like the proscribed Al Ummah in Tamil Nadu and others in southern India – to carry out a series of five blasts in court complexes in Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh in 2016, according to the sources.

Five members of`Base Movement’ were arrested from Tamil Nadu in 2016 for the blasts in court complexes in a joint operation by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) and the police from Andhra Pradesh and other states. They were found to have links to the proscribed Al Ummah and Popular Front of India (PFI).

Among the distinguishing aspects of the IEDs that exploded in court complexes in 2016 was the use of printed circuit boards as timers, an array of 9-volt batteries for power supply, the filaments of decoration lights as the detonators, and easily available material from firecrackers and matchsticks as the explosive material.

Experts said at the time that the array of batteries was used as part of a strategy to ensure the transfer of maximum electrical charge to the bulb filaments used as detonators.

A series of five blasts occurred across five different courts in south India in 2016. The first blast occurred at a district court complex in Chittoor in Andhra Pradesh on April 7, 2016, the second at Kollam in Kerala on June 15, the third at Mysuru in Karnataka on August 1, the fourth at Nellore in Andhra Pradesh on September 12, and the fifth at Malappuram in Kerala on November 1.

The fairly sophisticated bombs were placed at parking lots, outer periphery walls, and a toilet in the courts and the blasts did not cause serious damage. No deaths occurred in the blasts.

The IEDs were found to have been constructed with household and unregulated materials as described in bomb-making manuals created originally by Al-Qaeda and also distributed among the cadre of the Islamic State cadre during the 2015-2016 period.

A pressure cooker IED that exploded in New York in 2016 and another that did not explode at the time were described in news reports as having probably been constructed with do-it-yourself (DIY) technology – Christmas lights for detonators, a flip mobile phone as the timer, and easily available chemicals as explosives.

Following the explosion in Mangaluru, city police commissioner N Shashi Kumar said: “A special team and the FSL (forensic science lab) team have collected the evidence and are ascertaining the reasons behind the incident. Some people have been injured. They are being treated for burns.”

“There is no need for people to panic. There is no need to create confusion and spread rumours through social media. I will straightaway share the information with you whatever information we get,” he said.