K'taka CM questions Shivakumar after ISKP claims hand in Mangaluru blast

Bengaluru, March 6 (IANS) Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai on Monday questioned Karnataka Congress chief D.K. Shivakumar after a global terror outfit ISKP took responsibility for the Mangaluru cooker blast.

Speaking to reporters he said, "NIA is carrying out its duties. They have claimed responsibility. Now, what will Shivakumar say? He ridiculed that it was not a cooker bomb and it was just a cooker and nothing in it. Shivakumar also stated that BJP is misusing the issue. What he will tell now," CM Bommai questioned.

The global terror outfit IS has claimed responsibility for the Mangaluru cooker blast case. Islamic State - Khorasan Province (ISKP), an affiliate of the IS has claimed responsibility in its magazine 'Voice of Khorasan' which has published a report on carrying out blasts in Mangaluru of Karnataka and Coimbatore of Tamil Nadu.

The blast occurred on November 19, 2022 in a moving auto in Mangaluru. The cooker bomb was allegedly designed to carry out a large-scale attack to fuel communal tension in the coastal region and in the state. The Islamic Resistance Council (IRC), an unknown Islamic outfit, claimed responsibility for the November 19, 2022, Mangaluru auto blast and warned of another attack in future.

Karnataka Congress President D.K. Shivakumar had stirred a controversy by stating that the Mangaluru blast incident was done by the ruling BJP to divert attention of the people from the Voter ID scam.

Shivakumar further had questioned that "without investigation how the suspect Mohammad Shariq arrested in connection with the blast could be declared as a terrorist? Was it an incident like the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack? Was it an incident like the Pulwama terror attack?

"How was the whole incident projected by the ruling BJP? When the Voter ID scam came to light in Karnataka, immediately after the Mangaluru cooker blast incident took place. Why? From where the accused came? Shivakumar had asked then.

"You are trying to highlight emotional issues in life and trying to make a livelihood out of it. In your (BJP) tenure not a single recognizable work has been carried out. Simply you indulged in deviation," he had attacked.

"The DG visits hurriedly and declares it a terror act. What are you trying to do? This is an attempt of deviation. Do you think people are dumb?" Shivakumar had said then.