The State police claimed to have achieved a breakthrough in about a dozen explosive cases reported in the southern districts, particularly Madurai, since 2011 with the arrests of two persons from Melur on Saturday.

A team of police officials from Special Intelligence Unit and ‘Q’ Branch detained S. Abbas Mydeen (40) and M. Mubarak (22) of Melur following specific tip off on their “suspicious activities” in a hillock recently. While the former was a courier agent, Mubarak was working in a shop in Melur, police sources said.

“We got an alert from our informants about their movements in Pranmalai in Sivaganga district (bordering Madurai district) following which we picked them up. Upon interrogation, they confessed to their involvement in some of the explosive cases (reported in Madurai city, rural areas, Sivaganga and Theni districts). In other cases, their accomplices were involved,” a police official said.

The police also took them to Pranmalai hillock late on Saturday night and seized a bucket full of materials, including small quantity of an explosive substance, timer devices, batteries, few pieces PVC pipes among others from a cavern.

“These are remnants of the materials used for the explosives that were found or blown off in various places in Madurai and neighbouring districts,” the official said.

“The materials seized on Saturday were similar to those found in an explosive detected in Sivaganga Town on January 1, 2015,” another officer said.

The duo, held under provisions of Explosives Act, and for criminal conspiracy, was produced before the Judicial Magistrate-I, D. Thriveni, who remanded them in judicial custody till April 1.

Police sources said that special teams were on the lookout for 10 more persons in this connection.

EOM