The National Investigation Agency (NIA) arrested a computer engineer on Friday in connection with the Rameshwaram Cafe blast in Bengaluru. Officials identified the suspect as Shoaib Ahmed Mirza, also known as Chhotu, a 35-year-old resident of Hubbali city in Karnataka. Mirza is the fifth individual to be apprehended in this case, they reported.
Mirza, a computer engineer, had previously been sentenced to five years of rigorous imprisonment in 2016 for his involvement in a 2012 conspiracy case. This conspiracy, orchestrated by Pakistan-based terror organizations Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami (HuJI), aimed to carry out targeted killings of prominent Hindu community members in Bengaluru and Hubbali to incite communal discord, officials stated.
“Three days after a massive crackdown across four states in the Rameshwaram Cafe blast case, the NIA on Friday arrested one more accused, identified as an ex-convict in an LeT terror conspiracy case,” a statement issued by the NIA said.
Further investigations into the handler's role and the broader conspiracy behind the blast, which injured several people and caused extensive property damage on March 1, are ongoing, officials added.
The NIA, which took over the Rameshwaram Cafe blast case on March 3, arrested two key suspects on April 12 from their hideout in Kolkata. These suspects, mastermind Abdul Matheen Ahmed Taahaa and Mussavir Hussain Shazib, the perpetrator of the attack, were living under assumed identities. Along with them, co-accused Maaz Muneer Ahmed and Muzammil Shareef, a resident of Khalsa in Karnataka’s Chikkamagaluru, have also been apprehended by the NIA, officials stated.