The police recovered a "burnt pressure cooker with batteries" inside the autorickshaw.
Searches were conducted at the house of a man allegedly involved in an autorickshaw blast in Karnataka on Saturday. Shareeq, who was injured in the blast, is in hospital. Preliminary investigation indicates that he has terror links, the police said.
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The blast took place at the communally charged coastal town of Mangaluru – 370 km from state capital Bengaluru -- months ahead of the state elections.
The police said Shareeq, the passenger in the auto-rickshaw, was carrying a low-intensity Improvised Explosive device or IED. A burnt pressure cooker fitted with batteries was found inside the vehicle.
This morning, the police confirmed that it was "an act of terror with intention to cause serious damage". The Karnataka police are investigating it along with central agencies.
The police said Shareeq is not well enough to give a statement. The auto driver, who was also injured, is in the hospital.
Shareeq was also carrying an Aadhaar card which did not belong to him, the police said. The owner of the card has been located. Premraj Hutagi, a resident of Karnataka's Hubballi district, who works as a track maintainer in the Tumakuru railway station, said he had lost the card and had acquired a duplicate.
Citing the "stolen" Aadhaar card, the police said it gives them a "fair idea that he (Shareeq) was planning to target something, but we don't know what". "We are not ruling out his having a connection with the recent Coimbatore blast," said state police chief Praveen Sood.Shareeq was previously booked under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) for graffiti on walls in Mangaluru, the police said.
The man, Mr Sood said, is from Karnataka and had travelled outside the state over the last few months. "He had recently travelled to Coimbatore and parts of Tamil Nadu. He was headed somewhere," he added.
On Sunday afternoon, the police searched Shareeq's rented house in Madahalli, located around 13 km from Mysuru. A bomb squad was also deployed in the area. The police said he had rented the one-room accommodation last month, telling the house owner that he was in the city for "mobile repair training".
The man, the police said, had also procured a SIM card from Coimbatore, which was not in his name. "The tower locations showed that he had travelled across Tamil Nadu. His call logs being examined to find his associates is Tamil Nadu," said sources in intelligence agencies.
"The state police have launched an intensive investigation into the autorickshaw blast incident that took place in Mangalore yesterday. It is suspected that this may be a terror-related incident. Along with the state police, central investigation teams will also join hands," said Karnataka home minister Araga Jnanendra.
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