According to the Kerala police probing the low intensity blasts in Kollam and Malappuram districts, purportedly carried out by members of the Base Movement, more blasts had been planned across the state.
Members of the group, allegedly linked to Al-Qaeda, were arrested from Madurai and Chennai, and are currently being interrogated by the police.
The Hindu reports that investigators had received information that the group had been targeting central government offices and prominent public figures.
According to reports, the group had apparently planned at least two more attacks over the next two months in Kerala and Telangana. As the group is based out of Tamil Nadu, they did not plan any attacks in that state in order to avoid suspicion of local police.
The probe into the Base Movement’s activities in Kerala is being conducted by a special investigation team headed by Kochi Deputy Commissioner of Police Arul RB Krishna.
However, the Kerala police is reportedly set to hand over the case to the National Investigative Agency soon.
Currently, the police are probing a WhatsApp message sent to the Kochi police in November warning of further attacks. “Investigations revealed that the number from which the message was sent was non-existent and hence the identity of the person who sent it could not be ascertained. We then approached the Intelligence Bureau and the National Investigation Agency,” said M.P.Dinesh, Commissioner of Police, Kochi told The Hindu.
The police are probing the message as investigations have shown that operators of the Base Movement possess around twenty mobile phones, and also use public Wi-Fi networks to send out threats and other messages.
The police are also attempting to trace the persons who supplied explosives for the series of blasts. However, they are facing difficulty since the bombs used by the group mainly employed gunpowder, which is easily procured from many sources. They suspect that the gunpowder may have originated from firecracker manufacturers in Tamil Nadu.
The latest attack carried out by the group was on November 29 inside the Malappuram Magistrate court complex using an LPG cylinder. Earlier, a similar explosion had occurred in the Kollam Collectorate complex in June 2016.