Shobha Karandlaje, the Union Minister of State for Agriculture and Farmers' Welfare, said on Friday that the suspect in the Mangaluru bomb had received "Islamic State training" and had passed it on to more than 40 individuals, news agency PTI reported.
She referred to the information on the bombing suspect Mohammed Shariq (24) as frightful and claimed that because a thorough investigation was not conducted, the culprit was released on bail in the case involving anti-India graffiti.
In November 2020, graffiti supporting terrorist organisations appeared on a few public walls in Mangaluru, India. In connection with the incident, Shariq was detained but subsequently freed on bail.
Speaking with reporters, Union Minister said: "He (Shariq) had given ISIS training to more than 40 people. There is information that he himself got ISIS training," PTI reported.
She claims that the Kadri Manjunatha Swami Temple in Mangaluru was the intended target of the alleged cooker bomb that detonated in a moving autorickshaw.
The Union Minister stated that Shariq had provided maps of several temples in Mangaluru and the surrounding areas, adding that the accused had drawn out a strategy for it.
According to Karandlaje, the purpose of the detonation was to incite intercommunal conflict in coastal Karnataka, explode in temples, and cause issues for different leaders.
The BJP official further said that individuals trained by ISIS in Syria and members of the outlawed group Popular Front of India are engaged in terrorist operations in the coastal states of Kerala and Karnataka.
The minister pleaded with the state police to assist the National Investigation Agency (NIA) by giving them the tools and data they need to apprehend the terrorists.
After an investigation, the police classified an explosion that happened in an autorickshaw on November 19 as a terrorist incident.
The matter has been turned over to the NIA by the state government for additional investigation.
(With PTI Inputs)