Sleuths worried as Yasin Bhatkal pointing finger upwards before media

NEW DELHI: A seemingly innocuous gesture of arrested Indian Mujahideen chief Yasin Bhatkal every time he comes before TV cameras has left investigators puzzled and even slightly worried whether he was trying to send out a signal to accomplices still on the run.

On both his appearances before the media, Bhatkal held his finger pointed skywards. The gesture was first noticed by security agencies when he was being produced before a court in Motihari in Bihar a day earlier after his arrest. They saw it again when he was brought to Delhi and produced before a magistrate last Friday.

Suspecting him to be giving a signal to his absconding partners in the IM, interrogators in the Intelligence Bureau (IB) and the National Investigation Agency (NIA) have now specifically questioned Bhatkal on whether he was trying to pass a message to his associates, an official with knowledge of the matter told ET.

“When asked on this particular point, he said his gesture was to tell his cadres that he does not care about his arrest by the security agencies… That he attaches no value to this action by the police and wants to give a message to his accomplices to not be disturbed or disheartened by his arrest and keep on doing their work,” the official said, adding that investigators were not taking his claims at face value.

A joint team of the IB, Research & Analysis Wing (R&AW) and the NIA is questioning Bhatkal. The Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) also putting in a request with the NIA to let it also participate in the questioning. The ATS is probing the July 13, 2011 Mumbai serial blasts.