NEW DELHI (Reuters) – India’s anti-terror agency arrested on Friday the suspected bomber of a cafe in the southern tech hub of Bengaluru last month and the mastermind who planned the explosion, an officer at the agency said.
Police and investigators from the National Investigation Agency (NIA) traced the suspects near the eastern city of Kolkata, where they were hiding under false identities, the officer said.
The powerful explosion on March 1 near the kitchen of Rameshwaram Cafe during lunch hour wounded nine people. The NIA later released photographs of the suspected bomber and offered a cash reward of 1 million rupees ($11,985) for information leading to his arrest.
The agency arrested Mussavir Hussain Shazib, who is suspected to have placed a homemade bomb in the cafe, and his accomplice Abdul Matheen Taha, suspected to be the “mastermind” behind the planning, execution and evasion from law enforcement agencies, the officer said.
A state minister had said at the time of the blast that none of the injuries were life-threatening.
($1 = 83.4340 Indian rupees)
(Reporting by Shivam Patel in New Delhi; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)
