: The Chittoor police have intensified surveillance in areas bordering Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, and in Anantapur and Kadapa districts following receipt of a threat letter reportedly from the Al-Qaeda, claiming responsibility for the bomb blast on the Chittoor court premises on April 7 last, “in retaliation to the killing of five of their commandants on April 7 in Telangana last year.” It warned of more such attacks.
The letter was issued in the name of “The Base Movement” with its logo having some Arabic letters, in addition to the picture of Osama bin Laden below which the word Al-Qaeda was printed. The letter, dated April 12, was posted in the area served by the Puttur post office, and had reached the Deputy Commissioner (Commercial Taxes-Chittoor) on April 20, to whom it was addressed. Commercial Taxes officials forwarded the letter to District SP Ghattamaneni Srinivas on April 23.
Senior police officials told The Hindu that special teams were sent to Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala and Telangana to verify the authenticity of the letter, and study similar incidents. Police, after studying the pattern of the blasts on the court premises at Chittoor and at Kollam in Kerala on June 15 have concluded that they are strikingly similar. In both cases, low-intensity explosives planted in parked SUVs went off leaving one each injured. Also, the blasts took place on a day important murder cases — of the mayor and her husband in Chittoor, and a senior police officer Maniyan Pillai in Kollam — had come up for hearing.
The officials say both blasts were organised by highly skilled technicians.
Suspects grilled
“We have interrogated a number of suspects, including a suspended cop of Nalgonda, former Maoists who have surrendered or are facing trial, and operatives of the Al-Umma outfit who were nabbed by Tamil Nadu police at Puttur in Chittoor district on October 5, 2013,” the officials said.
Before this development, police probed the Chittoor blast case from the angle of rivalry, with the mayor and her husband on one hand and their relative Chintu alias Chandrasekhar, who is prime accused in the case.
Mr. Srinivas confirmed that a letter in the name of Al-Qaeda was received by Commercial Taxes officials. “We are investigating the case from all angles,” he said.
