ISI was against IM developing contacts with al Qaeda: NIA

NEW DELHI: Pakistan's intelligence agency ISI had warned Indian Mujahideen(IM) operatives against attempting to establish contact with global terror groups like al Qaeda which had agreed to give training to Yasin Bhatkal's group, NIA has told a Delhi court.

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has said in its charge sheet that its probe brought out that ISI's officials "mistreated" and "sternly warned" IM's absconding operative Riyaz Bhatkal for trying to establish contact with al Qaeda.

IM had decided to "severe" the association with ISI and shift towards al Qaeda since they felt that the Pakistani agency was against the "true jihadi ideology", the charge sheet said.

"Investigation has established that the ISI of Pakistan has been providing monetary and infrastructural support to the IM operatives for waging terrorist activities within India.

"However, it has emerged that the senior IM operatives including Iqbal Bhatkal, Riyaz Bhatkal, Mirza Shadaab Beg and others were not very happy with the ISI's control on their activities and wanted to intensify their jihad or war against India with the assistance of global terrorist organisations like al Qaeda and Taliban," it said.

NIA also said "it is established from the chats that the absconding accused Riyaz Bhatkal travelled to the tribal belts on Afghanistan-Pakistan border for establishing contact with AQaeda.

"After the meeting which was very fruitful, al Qaeda gave specific tasks to the IM for execution and also agreed to train their cadres in terrorist activities."