Yasin Bhatkal mastermind of German Bakery blast

MUMBAI: The Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) has identified Yasin Bhatkal, 27-year-old inner-circle member of Indian Mujahideen (IM) founder Riyaz Bhatkal, as the mastermind of the Pune attack. IM, floated by Pakistan’s Lashkar-e-Toiba to mask its role in the terror campaign in India, had used its southern brigade to carry out the attack.

Maharashtra home minister R R Patil on Thursday told the state assembly that the ATS has obtained conclusive leads confirming that Yasin Bhatkal, brother of IM founder Riyaz Bhatkal, was the mover of the attack on German Bakery. The ATS, the minister said, has also got leads against three of Yasin’s accomplices. The ATS believes that the attack was part of LeT’s ‘Karachi Project’.

The powerful blast at the German Bakery in Pune’s upmarket Koregaon Park area on February 13 had killed 17. While the involvement of IM has always been suspected, the ATS has now got conclusive leads against the terror outfit, Mr Patil added.

Yasin was also behind the serial blasts in Mumbai’s suburban trains on July 11, 2006. Riyaz Bhatkal, a native of Bhatkal in Karnataka, has been absconding since the train blasts that killed more than 187 people. The ATS, which has submitted a preliminary report on investigations into the terror attack — the first after 26/11 — has claimed that the suspects have been identified and they would be arrested soon.



IM has been blamed for a string of bomb blasts since 2006. Twenty-two of its members have so far been arrested for alleged involvement in terror strikes.

Yasin was named in the accounts provided to the police by Pune resident Mohammed Akbar Ismail Chaudhry, a key accused in the August 2007 Hyderabad twin blasts. The ATS suspects that his brother Mohsin was also involved in the execution of the Pune blast.

According to the information provided to the police by over half-a-dozen IM men arrested since September 2008, Yasin supplied explosives, held training sessions in bomb making and even assembled bombs in a few cases. He is believed to have also supplied ammonium nitrate used in the September 2008 Delhi blasts.

As per the police, the Bhatkal brothers had used their coastal hometown of Bhatkal as an IM hub. They had got support from Simi activists for forming IM. The core group of IM had organised training camps for Simi members in the Hubli-Dharwad region and at Alwaye in Kerala.