Riyaz Bhatkal brain behind Indian Mujahideen operations in India: Yasin Bhatkal

NEW DELHI: Indian Mujahideen founder Yasin Bhatkal is believed to have told interrogators that his boss and co-founder Riyaz Bhatkal is the brain behind IM operations in India and is in touch with all major IM operatives from Pakistan to coordinate the strikes.

“Yasin claims that in the IM, one module does not know what the other module does and the main person in touch with all operatives and controlling the operations is Riyaz Bhatkal from Pakistan and not him. Yasin gave an example that he was not aware before the bombing in Hyderabad this February that a separate module of the IM, comprising Syed Maqbool and Imran Khan were deputed by Riyaz Bhatkal to do a reconnaissance of the Dilsukh Nagar area, where Yasin ultimately was directed by Riyaz Bhatkal to plant the bombs,” a official privy to the interrogation details said.

Maqbool and Khan were subsequently arrested by Delhi Police. An NIA official said both these men had not come in touch with Yasin for the Hyderabad plot and were handed by Riyaz. “Bhatkal was given a chance to make a call to his family in Karnataka or his wife but he refused to speak to them,” a NIA official told ET.

A senior government official said he had got a whiff of the IB trap for him in Pokhara almost 20 days before he was ultimately nabbed. IB feared he may slip away as he had stopped moving out of his hideout since August 10. He was spotted by IB sleuths in the second week of August when he had stepped out of a house where he was staying for almost a year. “His photograph was clicked and sent across to India for identification since his appearance seemed different from his available photographs. It was noticed that he stopped moving out of the house. Fearing that he may slip away, the sleuths raided the house on the morning of August 28 to nab him along with his IM accomplice Asadullah Akhtar,” the official said.