Guitarist to terrorist

Man arrested in connection with Bangalore serial blasts was once a musician in Kerala

The 57-year-old man arrested for last year's serial blasts was once a guitarist and a music teacher.

Edapana Thodika Zainuddin alias Abdul Sattar alias Abdul Salam Alias Saleem, who made the bombs used in the Bangalore and Ahmedabad blasts, told the police he had been a small-time electronics repairman at Kondotty in Kerala's Malappuram district. He has also worked in Hyderabad, Ajmer and Saudi Arabia.

At Kozhikode, he had learnt to play the electric guitar, and performed with several orchestras. He claimed he had even taught western music at the well-known Feroke College near Kozhikode.

Gone wrong

According to the police, Sattar said he had been drawn to the preachings of religious organisation Silsila Nooria Tareeqath since the 1970s, and was upset when the Babri Masjid was demolished in 1992 and communal riots erupted in Malappuram. He recalled a bomb blast in his locality that killed one person, after which the police arrested an alleged RSS member.

After hearing about the incident, Sattar said he went about procuring gelatine sticks, resistors, capacitors and timers and made 200 pipe bombs with the help of Shoaib Chammadi, an acquaintance he met at a SIMI function.
Police questioned him when villagers found the bombs, but he reportedly feigned ignorance.

In his confession, Sattar has reportedly revealed that his group had planned blasts at 20 places in Bangalore but cut down the number to 10 for want of men to carry bombs hidden in flower pots.

Among the sites they had chosen were the Vidhana Soudha, High Court and Infosys, but they finally decided against them as they are high security zones, police said.