Suspected top Indian Mujahideen (IM) operative Tehseen Akhtar alias Monu (23), allegedly involved in several bomb blasts, including in Hyderabad and Mumbai, was on Tuesday arrested in West Bengal’s Naxalbari near Darjeeling. He is considered to be the mastermind behind the serial blasts at BJP prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi’s rally in Patna last October and the Bodh Gaya blasts.
Tehseen, a resident of Samastipur in Bihar, was heading terror operations in India and was directly in touch with the Bhatkal brothers — Riyaz and Iqbal — through encrypted online chat rooms on Yahoo and Nimbuzz.
Special commissioner of Delhi Police S N Srivastava said Tehseen, in coordination with Pakistani terrorist Zia-Ur-Rehman alias Waqas, who was nabbed on Sunday, was planning to carry out terror strikes at various political rallies. However, they were apparently not targeting Modi. Delhi Police Special Cell claimed it managed to nab Tehseen after his location was disclosed by Waqas.
Contrary to this, intelligence officials said Tehseen was traced and detained a few days ago and was officially arrested on Monday after they managed to get other holed-up suspected terrorists’ whereabouts.
Tehseen is a close aide and a protégé of terrorist Ahmad Siddhibappa Zarar alias Yasin Bhatkal, and is wanted for many attacks. He was handling modules of IM apart from being the key link between the outfit and Students Islamic Movement of India.