Yasin Bhatkal — the once-elusive face of terror in India and alleged Indian Mujahideen (IM) co-founder — has reportedly given intelligence agencies a significant amount of information on various terror modules active in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, besides confessing that he was in Nepal for the past six months, prepping around 100 hardcore associates who would do anything at his bidding.
Yasin and his close aide Assadullah Akhtar alias Haddi were nabbed from the Indo-Nepal border on Wednesday.
The alleged terrorist spilled the beans on operatives recruited to the Azamgarh and Darbhanga modules and detailed the acts of terror being planned by the sleeper cells, a senior intelligence officer said.
“These modules were not on the intelligence dossier or watch list. There are several new names and it appears that Bhatkal was on a recruitment drive to strengthen the IM terror factory. He provided information that will help us neutralise these terror modules,” the officer told Express, on the condition of anonymity. As Indian intelligence agencies mounted their surveillance in the hunt for Yasin, sending Rs 1 lakh home to his wife before Eid early this month perhaps proved to be his undoing that gave away his Nepal hideout.
(With PTI inputs)
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