Bengaluru/Mangaluru: Two days after the arrest of three alleged Indian Mujahideen (IM) operatives along with a cache of explosives, Bengaluru police have arrested another suspected IM operative from the Mangalore airport.

A team of the Central Crime Branch of the city police arrested Riyaz Ahmed , 34, on Saturday night, just before he was to board a flight to Dubai . Riyaz is a resident of Bhatkal town in Uttara Kannada district. The three men arrested earlier were also from Bhatkal.

Mangaluru police sources told TOI that a team from Bengaluru police had credible information that Riyaz was scheduled to take the 11.25pm Jet Airways flight to Dubai. Wanting to avoid any scenes, police waited for him to clear immigration and swooped down on him minutes before he was to board the flight. Riyaz didn’t offer any resistance, the sources said.

Riyaz was first taken to jurisdictional Bajpe police station where a mention was made that he was being detained for questioning and subsequently taken to Bhatkal as part of the ongoing investigations.

Bengaluru police commissioner MN Reddi confirmed Riyaz was picked up on the basis of information provided by the three IM men arrested on Thursday. “Riyaz is being interrogated,” he added.

R Dilip, superintendent of police, Uttara Kannada, told TOI, “It will not be fair to comment on the investigations by the CCB.” He neither confirmed nor denied the arrival of CCB team to Bhatkal with Riyaz.

The first three IM operatives were picked up in a joint operation by the Central Crime Branch and state internal security division on Thursday in two simultaneous raids in Cox Town in east Bengaluru and Bhatkal of Uttara Kannada district.

The arrested men — Syed Ismail Afaq, 34, Saddam Hussein , 35 and Abdus Subur, 24 — were remanded to police custody till January 21. They are being questioned at the interrogation centre in south-east Bengaluru.

Counsel for the three suspected IM terrorists has alleged that that they were being tortured by police and demanded a probe into the matter.

