Samastipur’s Mohammad Tahseen Akhtar, the man behind the Patna blasts

NEW DELHi: He is just 23 but already has a reward of Rs 10 lakh on his head having masterminded at least three blasts, within three years of joining his outfit, the Indian Mujahideen. He moves around posing as a student to secure accommodation or as a tourist guide while try to conduct surveillance on possible target venues.

Sleuths say he is capable of easily switching identities and hence not easy to nab.

Meet Mohammad Tahseen Akhtar from Bihar’s Samastipur, the main suspect in the serial blasts in Patna on Sunday and Bodh Gaya blasts in that shattered the peace of his state twice in the last four months. Akhtar may be the youngest terrorist to take charge of the Indian Mujahedeen after the dramatic arrest of Yasin Bhatkal from Nepal this August.

His meteoric rise came within three years of joining IM and partnering Yasin in planting bombs in Varanasi in 2010.

He was also with Yasin while planting bombs in Mumbai in 2011. Intelligence agencies believe that IM’s chief hiding in Pakistan, Riyaz Bhatkal, developed confidence in Akhtar to let him carry out serial bombings in Hyderabad on his own, earlier this year. After the two serial blasts in Bihar, Akhtar is now on top of India’s wanted list.

Akhtar is known to visit shops selling SIM cards for purchase of the same using fake documents. He is computer-savvy and visits cyber-cafes often. He speaks English and Hindi with a strong Bihari accent and uses Internet on his Android phone but this has given no clue on his whereabouts to security agencies on his tail.

The NIA raided his village Maniarpur in Samastipur several times this year and also took his father Mohammad Waseem Akhtar’s DNA sample after Bhatkal’s arrest. It helped them establish that Akhtar stayed at a flat in Mangalore which he abandoned in haste after news of Bhatkal’s arrest was flashed on TV. NIA found the flat littered with detonators, wires and explosives – signaling his intentions.

“Akhtar may be plotting for future terror strikes. He is known to be inciting communal hatred in society,” NIA said last month, declaring a Rs 10 lakh reward on his head. The Patna blasts show NIA’s fears were not misplaced.

“Bihar Police should have been more proactive and far more alert to nab Akhtar who belongs to the state. They should have interrogated Yasin to know more about him,” says former Home Secretary RK Singh. Officials in NIA say Akhtar was working on recruiting youth from Ranchi and building a new module for terror strikes in Bihar.