TIRUNELVELI : Police have arrested five people and seized explosives from them at Melapalayam in Tirunelveli on Sunday.

Sleuths of the special investigation division (SID) of CB-CID nabbed the five from their houses in Melapalayam on Saturday night and remanded them on Sunday. The team seized 17.5 kg gelatine sticks and 142 detonators hidden in the house of a relative of one of the arrested men.

The arrested were identified as Mohamed Tahim, 32, of Ameenpuram, 'Kattai' Sahul alias Sahul Hameed, 32, Anwar Bismi, 32, of Veera Street, Mohamed Samsudeen, 22, of Bungalow Appa Nagar and Kutti alias Noorul Ahmed, 21. "We have launched a hunt for 'Paravai' Badshah, a native of Melapalayam and close associate of Kichan Buhari who has been arrested in connection with the blasts at Bangalore. He was the one who handed the explosives to the five. Only after his arrest, we might get information about the motive for stocking explosives," said a police officer.

CB-CID sources said the arrests were made with the help of information spilled by Kichan Buhari on Paravai Badshah during the investigation in connection with the Bangalore blasts. Police said that Badshah had handed over the explosives to Kattai

Sahul and Mohamed Tahim soon after the Bangalore blasts and asked the duo to hide them. They roped in Anwar Bismi, Noorul Ahmed and Mohamed Samsudeen to hide the explosives. The three took the explosives and hid them in their houses for the past three months. They had also packed the explosives and convinced their relatives to keep the parcel in their houses without informing them that they were explosives. "These three were first time offenders. They were not given more details about the source of the explosives or the motive for stocking them. We suspect that they were under some sort of training for anti-social activities," the officer said.

Sahul has five cases pending against him, while his associate Tahim is also a notorious character with several cases against him. Kattai Sahul was an accused in a murder case in 1998 along with Buhari and was a member of a charitable trust for minorities run by the latter. The two were also associated with 'Police' Fakrudeen , the prime accused in the pipe bomb case targeting BJP leader L K Advani in Madurai .

Police have planned to take them into custody and continue interrogation which would throw more light on their activities.

