Abubacker Siddique, one of the most wanted terror suspects nabbed by the Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) of the Tamil Nadu Police in Andhra Pradesh recently, was an expert at making Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs), Director-General of Police (DGP) Shankar Jiwal has said.
Talking to reporters in Chennai on Friday, ATS officials shared the inputs given by Siddique to the Andhra Pradesh Police and Central agencies. A search was conducted at the hideout of Siddique in Rayachoti near Kadapa, where explosives and other incriminating materials were seized.
Mr. Jiwal said the ATS launched two operations — Operation Aram and Operation Agazhi — in which Siddique, Mohammed Ali, and ‘Tailor’ Raja were arrested. Siddique was wanted in several bomb blast and communal murder cases.
He was on the run for about 30 years, but continued his criminal activities across south India. There were hardly any clues, and he was operating under several pseudonyms, changing his location constantly.
The DGP said the suspects posed as real estate agents or textile merchants and were capable of doing a variety of jobs.
The ATS team, which relied on human and technical intelligence, followed specific clues and picked up ‘Tailor’ Raja on July 9 in Vijayapura in Karnataka. He was wanted in four sensitive cases, including the 1998 Coimbatore serial bomb blasts case. He has been on the run since 1996, and there were no photographs of him except of a few from his teenage years. Raja was not in touch with his family and friends all these years.
The success of the ATS in apprehending the most wanted terror suspects involved several months of hard work, Mr. Jiwal said.
