The road connecting Gurappanapalya to where?

Gurappanapalya, once known for its proximity to the city's only drive-in theatre, is now Bangalore's terror hub.

The three men picked up last week in connection with the Bangalore blasts hail from this largely unplanned housing colony adjacent to posh Jayanagar.

Mixed profile

People of all communities live in Gurappanapalya, but  Muslims predominate. It comes under the Mico Layout police station, and is located just off the Bannerghatta Road IT corridor.

Bangladeshi nationals who come to Bangalore in search of work mostly live in Gurappanapalya.

Police suspect these immigrants manage to get ration cards and voter ID cards with the help of politicians.

"That makes it difficult for us to identify any one with ISI connection," said an investigator.

Gurappanapalya also houses labourers from Bihar, West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh. They mostly go to work along the IT corridor, and in residential layouts coming up in south Bangalore.

Many radical Islamic organisations were active in the area before the police clamped down on them.

Students Islamic Movement of India (Simi), banned in 2002, had its regional office here.

Gujarat link

A Gujarat special investigation team picked up several men from the area. Sameer Sadiq, who allegedly played a major role during the Surat riots, was among those arrested. He was the secretary of Simi.

He had been questioned earlier by CoD sleuths after the arrests of Mohammed Ghouse and Asadulla in connection with the Hubli terror plot.

Muzamil Sheikh, accused in the Mumbai train blasts case, stayed in Gurappa-napalya and was working for a leading software company on Banerghatta Road.

Hi-tech terror

Yahya Kammakutty alias Yahya Khan (32),  a software engineer, was picked up by the CoD from Gurappanapalya in connection with the Hubli terror plot early this year. His name also figures in the December 2005 IISc attack case.

Yahya lived in a rented house at Gurappanapalya and had allegedly sheltered Adnan alas Hafiz Mulla, a Simi activist from Bijapur who was later arrested in Indore.

IT companies close by
Bannerghatta Rd
Infosys, Hiso, Honeywell
BPL Telecom, EximSoft Mphasis and IBM

J P Nagar
Honeywell,  Lucent Tech,
BPL Software, Accenture and HSBC software