Bhatkal arrest will yield crucial intelligence on terror

Bhatkal arrest will yield crucial intelligence on terror

www.mangaloretoday.com

New Delhi, August 29, 2013 (First Post): Following the arrest of one of India’s most-wanted terrorists Yasin Bhatkal from the Indo-Nepal border in the wee hours of Thursday, sources said the man arrested with him, Asadullah Akhtar alias Haddi, was wanted by the Maharashtra Anti-Terror Squad for planting the bombs in the serial explosions on JM Road in Pune in 2012.

The operation was conducted by the IB, jointly by the Delhi Police and the Karnataka police. He was also wanted in connection with the Bangalore blasts of July 2011.

 

The arrest is being considered a major breakthrough in the country’s fight against terror for two reasons. One, Bhatkal has been wanted in a range of terror attacks including Mumbai’s serial train blasts of 2006, German Bakery in Pune, the 13/7 attack in Mumbai, the Bangalore blasts of 2010 and the Jungli Maharaj Road explosions in Pune last year. Two, the arrest could lead to further information on the whereabouts and plans of other subversive elements.

Political leaders across party lines welcomed the arrest of Indian Mujahideen founder Yasin Bhatkal from the Indo-Nepal border on Thursday morning. “Many congratulations to agencies, hope more ‘wanted’ persons are soon arrested,” said Vinay Katiyar of the BJP. Nationalist Congress Party leader Tariq Anwar called the arrest a “big achievement for our agencies” and said he expects the arrest will help control terrorism.

 

Yasin Bhatkal, founder of the Indian Mujahideen and prime accused in a series of terror attacks in India including Pune’s German Bakery bomb blast and the serial blasts on board local trains in July 2006, was on Thursday morning arrested from Gorakhpur, near the Indo-Nepal border.

The commander of the IM in India, a trained bomb-maker, Yasin Bhatkal was absconding for the last six years. He was on the most-wanted list of various anti-terror agencies in India including the National Investigating Agency (NIA).

 

Muhammad Ahmad Zarar Siddibapa, better known as Yasin Bhatkal, was born in 1983 in Bhatkal, a small coastal town near Mangalore in Karnataka. Having spent his teenage years in Pune, he along with childhood friend Iqbal Ismail Shahbandri, a Unani doctor- who had turned to religious preaching, and the latter’s brother Riyaz Ismail Shahbandri, began to mobilize young Muslim men. The Shahbandri brothers, better known as Iqbal and Riyaz Bhatkal, are now believed to be in Karachi.

Yasin was known to be in India in 2010 – CCTV footage had placed him at the site of the German Bakery blast.

Later in 2010, his brother Abdul Samad was also picked up by security agencies from inside Mangalore airport, while on his way home to Bhatkal near Mangalore.

Reports also said the National Security Advisor had immediately briefed Prime Minister Manmohan Singh about the arrest.