Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata among world's 10 most polluted cities after Diwali celebrations

Mangaluru: Chandrashekhara MK, 33, from Mujoor village of Kadaba, who was arrested after hackers used his credentials to open a bank account and make an illegal transaction in Riyadh, was released from the Saudi Arabian jail on Monday.

In November last year, Saudi Arabian police arrested him for a banking fraud involving SAR 22,000 (approximately Rs 4.8 lakh), after he shared an OTP number with an unidentified person.

Social activist Shridhar Gowda, who helped the family of Chandrashekhara to reach out to the Indian Embassy through people’s representatives, said he reached home via Mangaluru International Airport on Monday evening.

Gowda said that Chandrashekhara was working for Al Fanar Co in Riyadh. “More than a year ago, Chandrashekhara had visited a shop in Riyadh to buy a phone and SIM card. The shop had taken his thumb impression twice and thereafter he received a message in Arabic. Later, he received a call asking him to share an OTP sent to his mobile phone. Without knowing the consequences, he had shared the OTP,” he said.

In November last year, Saudi Arabian police arrested him for a banking fraud involving SAR 22,000 (approximately Rs 4.8 lakh). Finally, with the help of his friends and the company in which he was working, Chandrashekhara could walk out of the jail through a court order,” Gowda added.

New Delhi, Nov 29: The National Investigation Agency on Wednesday said that it has filed a charge sheet against two accused -- Mohamed Shariq, who prepared the pressure cooker IED and Syed Shariq who provided material for the explosive -- in connection with the pressure cooker blast that took place in Karnataka's Mangaluru in November last year.

A NIA official here said that the agency filed the charge sheet against the two before a court on Wednesday.

The official said that Shariq and Syed, along with an online handler, had planned the explosion as part of a conspiracy to establish a Caliphate.

"In pursuance of the conspiracy, Mohamed Shariq had prepared the pressure cooker IED and Syed Yasin had provided material support for the explosive," the official said.

Mohamed Shariq was carrying the pressure cooker IED in an auto-rickshaw when it exploded on November 19 last year. The official said that he had planned to plant the IED at Kadri Manjunatha Temple in Mangaluru, with the aim to spread terror among the Hindu community but the low intensify bomb accidentally exploded on the way.

The case was filed by the NIA on November 23 last year under several sections of the IPC and the Explosive Substances Act.

Shariq was arrested by the NIA in July 2023, along with his co-accused Syed Shariq.

The official pointing out the role of Shariq in other cases said that he had first come on the radar of the security forces in November 2020 when he was arrested by the state police for pro-terror graffiti in Mangaluru city.

"He and his associates had put up the graffiti in support of the global terror outfit, the IS," the official said.

"Subsequently, Shariq was also named in the Shivamogga IS Conspiracy Case of 2022, in which so far 10 accused have been arrested," the official stated.

Of the 10 arrested, nine, including Shariq and Syed Yasin, were charge sheeted on June 30 this year for radicalising and recruiting gullible Muslim youth, raising funds, and conducting a trial blast to further the anti-India activities of the IS. 

The US military says Yemeni Armed Forces have fired two ballistic missiles in the direction of USS Mason, an Arleigh-Burke class destroyer, in the Gulf of Aden.

In a statement, the United States Central Command (CENTCOM) said that the destroyer was targeted early Monday morning local time after it aided the tanker ship Central Park that had been seized in the Gulf of Aden.

“The missiles landed in the Gulf of Aden approximately ten nautical miles from the ships,” the statement added.

“There was no damage or reported injuries from either vessel during this incident,” it claimed.

The Central Park was carrying phosphoric acid and had an international crew of 22, The Associated Press reported. It sent a distress signal prompting the US aircraft USS Mason to respond.

The tanker ship sails under the Liberian flag and is managed by London-based Zodiac Maritime, which is part of Israeli billionaire Eyal Ofer's Zodiac Group. 

Earlier this month, the Yemeni Armed Forces seized a vehicle transport ship also linked to Israel in the Red Sea off Yemen.

They have threatened to attack Israeli ships in the waters off Yemen and launched drone and missile strikes targeting the occupied territories in solidarity with the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

Israel waged a war on Gaza on October 7 after the Palestinian Hamas resistance group conducted Operation Al-Aqsa Storm against the occupying entity in retaliation for its intensified atrocities against the Palestinian people.

Since the start of the aggression, the Tel Aviv regime has killed nearly 15,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and left vast swathes of the coastal enclave in ruins.

It has also imposed a “complete siege” on the coastal sliver, cutting off fuel, electricity, food and water to the more than two million Palestinians living there.