New Delhi, Jan 24 (TIWN / IANS) The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Thursday said it has arrested one of the men involved in the 2006 Kerala twin blaste from the airport here.

Mohammad Ashar, who had since been absconding, was arrested on Wednesday from the Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport here after he arrived from Saudi Arabia, an NIA spokesperson told IANS.

Ashar had escaped to the Middle East nation in 2007. He would be produced later in the day before an NIA Special Court in the national capital to obtain a transit remand to take him to Kochi for his production before the Special Court in Ernakulam.

The twin blasts near the Kerala State Road Transport Corporation and Mofussil bus stands had rocked Kozhikode on March 3, 2006, and left two persons injured and a few properties damaged. 

The counter-terror agency had taken over the case from the Kerala Police in 2009 and filed the charge-sheet against eight accused in August 2010 under several sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), Arms Act and Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act. 

The NIA official said that thier probe revealed that besides Ashar, another absconder P.P. Yusuf, was involved in the conspiracy hatched by prime accused T. Naseer and others to carry out the IED blasts after bail was denied to the accused involved in the Marad communal riots of 2003 in Kozhikode district. 

Ashar and Yusuf had assisted Naseer in preparing the Improvised Explosive Devices and planting them.