Bengaluru (Karnataka) [India], January 11 (ANI) The Enforcement Directorate are carrying out searches at various locations in Shivamogga district of Karnataka in connection with the Mangaluru blast case.

Searches are being conducted at the houses of suspected terrorists, including Mohammed Shariq, the main accused in the November 19 pressure cooker blast in an autorickshaw in Mangaluru, Home Minister Araga Jnanendra said on Wednesday.

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"ED officials are in the area where the houses of suspected terrorists Shariq, Maz Muneer and Mateen are located in Thirthahalli (Shivamogga). Their houses are being searched. Officers are also collecting information from neighbouring houses," Jnanendra said.

A moving auto-rickshaw had exploded on November 19 last year triggered by a bomb in a pressure cooker that led to unravelling of a terror plot aimed at fuelling communal tensions in the coastal region and in the state, police had said.

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Shariq, who was carrying a pressure cooker bomb made IED and Purushottam Poojari, the autorickshaw driver were injured in the blast.

Shariq was en-route to a pre-decided location for carrying out the blast when the explosion took place. The Forensic Science Laboratory Division (FSL) team reached the house rented by Shariq in Mysore the next day and recovered materials used to make explosives. (ANI)

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