Bangalore blast arrests: The problem with 'immediate suspects' syndrome

The arrest of three persons for their alleged involvement in the Bangalore blast on 17 April has raised questions about the possible resurgence of terror-linked Islamist groups and whether the investigating agencies are still groping in the dark to solve the case. The arrest of 38-year-old Syed Mohamed Buhari alias Kichan Buhari, 39-year-old Peer Mohiddeen  and 30-year-old Basheer alias Sunnath Basheer, has been accompanied by theories that the blast and their arrest may be a sign of the resurgence of Islamist terror groups that were thought to have gone underground. While the police are still to reveal what role any of the three arrested persons may have played, unnamed sources have been quoted as saying in reports that the trio may have provided logistical support to the perpetrators of the blast by getting the motorcycle on which the bomb was planted in Bangalore. The NIA has said that the accused were tracked on the basis of a missed call a suspect had made to a two-wheeler dealer while buying it in Vellore, the Indian Express reported. [caption id=“attachment_724641” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  PTI[/caption] However, the Deccan Chronicle reported that the police had been tracking the use of cellphones with Chennai-based numbers when they discovered that Peer had used a neighbour’s phone to make calls from near the blast site Buhari, as a detailed profile of him documents, is no stranger to the police having being arrested for his alleged involvement in the February 1998 serial blasts in Coimbatore.  He also had cases of assault and murder against him for which he had spent time in jail, however, he was acquitted on charges in the Coimbatore blast case. “Every six months he would be taken by the police for interrogation for one case or another. Wherever there is a bomb blast, my son would be the immediate suspect. But they would let him go saying there is no evidence against him. This time too my son will prove his innocence’’ his sister Ramzad is quoted as saying. His wife has already filed a habeas corpus in the Madras High court alleging that her husband, who was assisting lawyer in the bomb blast case, had been called for questioning by an SIT probing a pipe bomb attack targeting BJP leader LK Advani in 2011 and had been threatened by the personnel. However, it is his links with the banned Islamist group Al Umma that is being probed and while unnamed police officials have been quoted as saying that the group may have provided support to the perpetrators of the Bangalore blast. The fact that he was acquitted in the Coimbatore blast case due to lack of evidence is also being cited as proof of his innocence in this case. An unnamed intelligence agency official is quoted in a report as saying that the prime reason for suspecting Buhari’s involvement is the fact that the explosive used in the Bangalore blast is similar to that used in the Coimbatore blasts. “We have learned that the make of the bomb is similar to what was used during the Coimbatore blast. However, Al-Umma had dissolved many years back. What we are suspecting is that members of group are now regrouping and Bangalore blast was their attack. There were reports of cadres of many banned organization regrouping, this could be one of them,” the official is quoted as saying. However, the same official is also quoted as saying that they had taken off surveillance on Buhari since he had not done anything suspicious in recent years. There’s no known criminal history of the two other accused in the case either, raising questions about the theories so far. And, until there some clarity on the role played by the accused, it may be a little premature to speculate over the groups that may have been involved in the attack.