Yasin Bhatkal says ISI trained him in handling bombs

Mumbai: Indian Mujahideen’s (IM) former India operations chief Mohammed Ahmed Siddibapa alias Yasin Bhatkal allegedly revealed to counter–terror investigators how he was trained in Karachi by Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) operatives in handling military-grade explosives like TNT, C3, C4 as well as ammonium nitrate and potassium nitrate.

The training subsequently helped him in acquiring expertise in IED (Improvised Explosive Device) bomb-making. Bhatkal, who was recently questioned in Ahmedabad after his arrest for alleged role in the July 2008 Ahmedabad blasts that killed 50 people, was arrested in August 2013. He was sentenced to death last December by a Hyderabad special court for his role in the February 2013 blasts there.

Bhatkal revealed that the ISI and its “associates” had trained him in weapons and bomb-making in December 2005 at a Karachi hideout. The IM used a ‘boat-shaped’ IED device allegedly crafted by Bhatkal in several of its terror attacks. According to Bhatkal, the ISI and its associates had earlier arranged for his travel to Karachi from Dubai, United Arab Emirates, where he had ostensibly gone for “business” purposes, said a central intelligence source. According to Bhatkal, his “illegal” entry into Pakistan was arranged in a manner that left no official records of the same to escape detection, said the source.

According to Bhatkal, the absconding IM co-founder Amir Reza Khan was already there in Karachi when he went there. Bhatkal had been recruited into IM by the terror outfit’s absconding co-founder Riyaz Bhatkal, who is currently suspected of hiding in Pakistan. It was Riyaz who asked Bhatkal to visit Pakistan and had earlier also allegedly attempted to make the latter get in touch with certain Al Qaeda-linked men in Sharjah, UAE, according to the source.

Riyaz in fact had begun mentoring Bhatkal since 2004 when they met in Mumbai, said the source.

“Riyaz had instructed Yasin to conduct experiments for bomb-making at a time the IM was trying acquire bomb-making skills on its own. Riyaz had also sent two other recruits to Bhatkal for basic training for 15 days in target practice with air-guns,” said the source. Riyaz subsequently allegedly gave '40,000 to Bhatkal for the establishment of a “workshop” that is suspected to have been part of the outfit’s initial attempts to manufacture weapons.

Bhatkal had fled to Nepal, with Riyaz bearing the expenses of his stay at a hideout there, before the former’s arrest in August 2013. The IM had orchestrated serials blasts in Jaipur, Ahmedabad, Bangalore and Delhi in 2008. After the blasts, IM’s top leadership exited India to take shelter in Pakistan, UAE and Nepal. The IM’s co-chiefs Riyaz Bhatkal and his brother Iqbal are suspected to be in hiding in Pakistan. 

Under the scanner

Yasin Bhatkal is under the scanner for his alleged links to the following incidents:

• Serial blasts in Ahmedabad, July 2008, in which around 50 persons were killed
• 18 boat–shaped IED devices were detected by the police in Surat in July 2008, the pre-emptive action saved lives
• Three blasts in Mumbai in July 2011 at Zaveri Bazaar, Opera House and Kabutarkhana, which killed around 20 persons
• The blast at Pune’s German Bakery at Koregaon Park that had killed 17 persons in February 2010
• The blasts in Hyderabad in February 2013 that killed 19 persons

India’s most wanted

• Was born in the southern state of Karnataka in 1983
• Attended a madrassa before graduating in engineering
• Former head of the Indian Mujahideen (IM)
• Involved in Mumbai train blasts in 2006 and explosions in Bangalore, Pune and Delhi in 2010.
• Also accused of bombing the Delhi high court in 2011.