The Tamil Nadu police has arrested five associates of Jameesha Mubeen, the man driving the car that exploded near the Sangameswarar Temple in Coimbatore on Sunday (23 October). Mubeen was killed in the blast.

The five arrested have been identified as Muhammad Thalka, Muhammad Azharudheen, Muhammad Riyas, Firoz Ismail and Muhammad Nawaz Ismail. All of them are from Ukkadam (where Mubeen lived) and nearby areas.

Some of those arrested were seen in a CCTV footage helping Mubeen carry a suspicious object into the car.

The cylinder was found to be stuffed with iron pellets and sharp metal items in order to cause more damage and injuries. Subsequent searches at Mubin’s house led to the seizure of explosive materials like potassium nitrate, sulphur, aluminium powder and charcoal.

The Tamil Nadu police who earlier said that the blast may have been accidental, now say that the LPG cylinder may have been triggered earlier than planned as Mubeen wanted to avoid a nearby police check-post.

According to a report by India Today, initial probes have suggested links between Mubeen's group and Mohammed Azharuddin, who is in jail in Kerala for propagating ISIS ideology through a Facebook page KhilifahGFX.

All of them used to follow Zahran Hashim, the Sri Lankan suicide bomber who carried out the Easter Day blasts in 2019.

There have been demands for the National Investigative Agency (NIA) to take over the case as a sinister plot is said to have been hatched to carry out an Easter Day style suicide bombing in Coimbatore, given the links with Zahran Hashim.

Opposition leaders, K Annamalai, the State President of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and E Palaniswamy, the interim General Secretary of the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) have slammed Chief Minister MK Stalin who also holds the Home Ministry for the failure of the state police and the intelligence department.

Annamalai questioned the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) government for not looking into the terror angle at the very outset given that the deceased Jameesha Mubeen had earlier been questioned by the NIA in 2019 for suspected ISIS links.