New Delhi: Indian Mujahideen founder Yasin Bhatkal has been arrested from the India-Nepal border in Bihar. Another key Indian Mujahideen key operative Asadullah Akhtar alias Haddi has also been arrested along with Yasin Bhatkal, who is also the head of the terror group's operations in India.
The entire operation to arrest the duo was carried out by the Intelligence Bureau (IB) with technical inputs from the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) and no police force including the National Investigation Agency was involved. The duo was arrested on Wednesday evening.
Yasin Bhatkal and Asadullah Akhtar alias Haddi were then handed over to the Bihar Police as intelligence agencies in India don't have the powers to carry out the arrests. The duo will be produced in a court in Motihari in East Champaran district of Bihar.
To make sure that the man they have arrested is Yasin Bhatkal, security agencies have decided to collect the DNA of his family members and match them with his samples.
Yasin Bhatkal's arrest is very crucial as he was on the hit-list of the all the major security agencies and police forces of the country. According to security experts, Bhatkal's free run so far was foremost the lack of a national database on criminals or terror suspects.
Along with the arrest of Abdul Karim Tunda, a key Lashkar-e-Toiba bomb maker, the security agencies have managed to deal a major blow to anti-India terror groups backed by Pakistan.
National Security Advisor Shivshankar Menon has briefed Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Yasin Bhatkal's arrest. Union Home Ministry Sushil Kumar Shinde confirmed that Yasin Bhatkal was arrested from the India-Nepal border in Bihar.
"Yasin Bhatkal was traced along the Bihar-Nepal border last night by our intelligence agencies. He is under the custody of Bihar Police and the interrogation has been going on. Till now, this is the only information I can give you," Shinde said outside Parliament House.
Yasin Bhatkal, whose real name is Muhammad Ahmad Zarar Siddibapa, hails from Uttara Kannada district in Karnataka. The 30-year-old Bhatkal co-founded the Indian Mujahideen in 2008 with his brothers Riaz Bhatkal and Abdul Subhan Qureshi.
He was on the NIA Most Wanted list and security agencies had been looking for him from the past five years. He is the only top Indian Mujahideen operative who decided to stay back in the country after the crackdown on the outfit.
He is alleged to have been involved in the 2010 Pune Gernam Bakery blast in which 17 people were killed and is suspected to the person who actually planted the explosives. He was caught on CCTV trying to conceal his identity by wearing a cap.
The Indian Mujahideen is suspected to be responsible for a long list of terror attacks in India including the ones in Bangalore and Hyderabad. He is the main accused in the blast outside a stadium in Bangalore in 2010 just before a cricket match.
He had earlier been arrested in 2008 by the West Bengal Police, but he managed to get bail as the officials were not aware that they have caught a dreaded terrorist.
The Indian Mujahideen came into being after the ban on Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI).
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