IM man Bhatkal behind Hyderabad blast, claims NIA

www.mangaloretoday.com

Hyderabad, Feb 27, 2013: NIA’s preliminary report to the Home Ministry has raised strong suspicions that the IM operating commander Yasin Bhatkal was present at the site of the explosion that rocked Dilsukhnagar on February 21.

They also say Bhatkal personally brought the second bicycle to Venkatadri theatre. “The blurred images on the CCTV   footage would prove us right,” says a senior official.

Investigators said while three persons prepared and planted the bicycle bombs, two others worked as support for identifying location and finding escape route.

Police are incredulous about Bhatkal’s presence in Hyderabad to direct the blasts.
“ He was the person who left the  bicycle  near  the  bus shelter of  bus route no  -107  near Venkatadri  theatre,” said  a senior official .

The state government has dispersed ex gratia to 13 of the 17 dead. In three of the four pending cases, the relatives in Hyderabad has to be identified, while the family of the fourth, 25-year-old Chogaram Kaloji from Bhinmal tehsil in Jalore district of Rajasthan, who died at the hospital later, had been notified. The state government, aiming to bolster security in Hyderabad, has sanctioned a proposal to install 3,500 CCTV cameras in the city at a cost of Rs 450 crore, in addition to 300 plus existing CCTVs.

City police has also directed shopping malls, cinema halls, temples, parks and tourist spots to install CCTV cameras in fifteen days, failing which they may have to lose their license to operate. 

 

NIA gets custody of two alleged IM operatives

Two alleged operatives of banned terror outfit Indian Mujahideen (IM) were today remanded by a Delhi court in five-day NIA custody for their interrogation in connection with the February 21 twin blasts in Hyderabad which claimed 16 lives.

Syed Maqbool and Imran Khan, who are currently lodged in Tihar Jail here following their arrest by the Delhi police in the August 2012 Pune blast case, were handed over to NIA for their custodial interrogation after the agency alleged they had in July last year recced Hyderabad’s Dilsukhnagar area where the blasts occurred.

The order was passed by District Judge I S Mehta after the agency submitted that the duo are suspected members of IM and their sustained custodial interrogation is required to unearth the module which was behind the blasts.

According to National Investigation Agency (NIA), the blasts took place on alleged instructions of IM’s Pakistan- based founder Riyaz Bhatkal and the duo’s interrogation will help in unearthing the exact plan envisaged by him.

The blasts in Hyderabad were triggered by IEDs planted near Konark and Venkatadiri theatres in Dilsukhnagar area.