Bellary, Feb. 17: Four Kashmiri men were taken into custody in Hampi on Wednesday in connection with Saturday’s terror attack on the German Bakery in Pune.
A police team from Pune, following specific clues in emails sent from IP addresses in Hampi, detained the four suspects who sources said sold artefacts at Virapura Gadde Island in the Tungabhadra river.
Investigating officials are looking for three other suspects in the heritage town that draws thousands of foreign tourists every year. In Virapura Gadde, where a franchise of the German Bakery is located and from where the emails were sent, seven Internet cafés were shut down since Tuesday evening.
Fearing for their safety, many foreign tourists staying in resorts on the island, a kilometre from Hampi by coracle, started moving to hotels in Hampi and Hospet after news spread of the suspects being taken into custody.
Investigators believe that a part of the Pune attack conspiracy could have been hatched in Hampi, sources said.
The Pune police team arrived in Hampi after carrying out investigations in Bhatkal in the Uttara Kannada district, the hometown of terror outfit Indian Mujahideen co-founder Riyaz Bhatkal.
The Kashmiri community in Hampi has been under the scanner earlier as well, with the Bengaluru police arresting a suspected Kashmiri terrorist, Imran Jalal, in Hampi in January 2007. Jalal established the now-defunct Kashmiri-Rajasthani Handicrafts Shop Owners’ Association that comprised over 35 Kashmiris.
Shivakumar G. Malagi