Jailed LeT operative Afsar Pasha masterminded last year's Mangaluru bomb blast: Police

economictimes.indiatimes.com:

Afsar Pasha masterminded the Mangaluru bomb blast that occurred in November last year and he provided training in making cooker bombs to the accused in the case, a police official said on Sunday. Pasha, who had earlier received training in making bombs in Bangladesh, provided training to the Mangaluru blast case accused during their stay in a jail in Karnataka, he said.

The probe also revealed that the now-banned outfit Popular Front of India had earlier transferred Rs 5 lakh to Pasha's bank account, he said, adding that a «comprehensive report» has been prepared by the police based on the information given by Pasha, and it has been shared with the country's intelligence agencies.Pasha is currently lodged in the Nagpur Central Jail after he was brought to the city earlier this month from a jail in neighbouring Karnataka in connection with a probe in threat calls made to Union minister Nitin Gadkari allegedly by gangster Jayesh Pujari, police said. «During the ongoing probe being conducted by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) and the police, it came to light that Pasha was the mastermind of the Mangaluru bomb blast case,» the police official said.

«Pasha's involvement in training the Mangaluru blast case accused, Mohammed Shariq, in manufacturing cooker bombs came to light during the probe,» he said. The blast occurred in an autorickshaw in Mangaluru on November 19 last year.

Shariq, the accused in the case who hailed from Shivamogga in Karnataka, was in the autorickshaw with a pressure cooker fitted with detonator, wires and batteries when it went off. The police had said that blast was «not accidental» but an «act of terror» with intention to cause serious damage.