Delhi police bring suspected IM operatives to Mangalore

April 9, 2014

Mangalore, Apr 9: Zia-ur-Rehman alias Waqas and Tehsin Akhtar alias Monu, alleged Indian Mujahideen operatives who were arrested by Delhi police were brought to Mangalore as part of the investigation.

A team of Delhi Police officials brought by a special flight and were taken to Attavar and Ullal, said police sources.

They were taken back in the evening. The two accused had been taken to Munnar a few days back. Waqas had stayed in Munnar for nearly two months, as a marketing official of a company and also managed to get a SIM card in Kerala.

Waqas was arrested by the Delhi police's special cell from Ajmer in Rajasthan on March 23 on charges that he was planning to carry out terror attacks in South India and Rajasthan. Waqas is known to be a close associate of Mohammed Ahmed Sidi Bapa alias Yasin Bhaktal, the alleged founder of IM.

The team took both accused to the third floor of a rented apartment at Zephyr Heights in the Attavar and also to the nearby cyber centre. They were later taken to a computer shop at PVS from where Waqas had bought a laptop.

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Elusive bamboo shrimp resurfaces in Mangaluru estuary after 70 years

News Network

December 7,2025

Mangaluru, Dec 7: A rare bamboo shrimp has been rediscovered on mainland India more than 70 years after it was last reported, confirming for the first time the presence of Atyopsis spinipes in the country. The find was made by researchers from the Centre for Climate Change Studies at Sathyabama Institute of Science and Technology, Chennai, during surveys in Karnataka and Odisha.

The team — shrimp expert Dr S Prakash, PhD scholar K Kunjulakshmi, and Mangaluru-based researcher Maclean Antony Santos — combined field surveys, ecological assessments and DNA analysis to identify the elusive species. Their findings, published in Zootaxa, resolve decades of taxonomic confusion stemming from a 1951 report that misidentified the species as Atyopsis moluccensis without strong evidence.

The shrimp has now been confirmed at two locations: the Mulki–Pavanje estuary near Mangaluru and the Kuakhai River in Bhubaneswar. Historical specimens from the Andaman Islands, previously labelled as A. moluccensis, were also found to be misidentified and actually belong to A. spinipes.

The rediscovery began after an aquarium hobbyist in Odisha spotted a shrimp in 2022, prompting systematic surveys across Udupi, Karwar and Mangaluru. Four female specimens were collected in Mulki and one in Odisha, all genetically matching.

Researchers warn the species may exist in very small, vulnerable populations as freshwater habitats face increasing pressure from pollution, sand mining and infrastructure development. All verified specimens have been deposited with the Zoological Survey of India for future reference.

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