Intelligence agencies have struck a major blow to terror outfit Indian Mujahideen (IM), with the arrest of its chief of operations Yasin Bhatkal and high-ranking operative Assadullah Akhtar alias Haddi from the India-Nepal border in a crafted operation on Wednesday night.
IM co-founder Yasin Bhatkal alias Mohammad Zarrar Siddhibapa was picked up from Raxaul near the Nepal border and handed over to Bihar Police and National Investigation Agency.
A top intelligence official told Express that Bhatkal had been staying in Pokhra, Nepal, for the past seven to eight months. “He was asked by ISI to leave Kathmandu as Indian intelligence agencies were hunting for terror modules in Nepal. He was asked to stay in remote areas to avoid detection,” the official said.
The official also confirmed that domestic spy agency IB was alerted by RAW after Assadullah joined Bhatkal about a month ago to plot a terror operation.
“Assadullah recently returned from Pakistan via UAE where he was settled. As both operatives are known by several aliases, their activities were closely monitored by officers for over a month. He was nabbed in coordination with Bihar Police,” the official said.
A source also confirmed that Bhatkal had given the slip to Indian security agencies on at least four occasions last year. “We were about to catch him last year on four occasions in — Delhi, Indore, Darbhanga and Sitapur. But on each occasion he managed to give us the slip and mysteriously disappeared just days ahead of the raid. He is a big catch, as everything from the stage of planning, material supply and execution of terror attacks was handled by this man,” the source said.
The importance of Bhatkal and Haddi’s arrest can be gauged by the fact that immediately after the news broke, National Security Adviser Shivshankar Menon briefed Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on the successful operation. A senior intelligence official said the capture of both terrorists shows that IM’s Nepal setup is intact.