Author: ET Bureau
Publication: The Economic Times
Date: April 9, 2010
URL: http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics/nation/Yasin-Bhatkal-mastermind-of-German-Bakery-blast/articleshow/5776239.cms
The Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS)
has identified Yasin
Bhatkal, 27-year-old inner-circle member of
Indian Mujahideen (IM) founder Riyaz Bhatkal, as the mastermind of the Pune
attack. IM, floated by Pakistan's Lashkar-e-Toiba to mask its role in the
terror campaign in India, had used its southern brigade to carry out the attack.
Maharashtra home minister R R Patil on Thursday
told the state assembly that the ATS has obtained conclusive leads confirming
that Yasin Bhatkal, brother of IM founder Riyaz Bhatkal, was the mover of
the attack on German Bakery. The ATS, the minister said, has also got leads
against three of Yasin's accomplices. The ATS believes that the attack was
part of LeT's 'Karachi Project'.
The powerful blast at the German Bakery in
Pune's upmarket Koregaon Park area on February 13 had killed 17. While the
involvement of IM has always been suspected, the ATS has now got conclusive
leads against the terror outfit, Mr Patil added.
Yasin was also behind the serial blasts in
Mumbai's suburban trains on July 11, 2006. Riyaz Bhatkal, a native of Bhatkal
in Karnataka, has been absconding since the train blasts that killed more
than 187 people. The ATS, which has submitted a preliminary report on investigations
into the terror attack - the first after 26/11 - has claimed that the suspects
have been identified and they would be arrested soon.
M has been blamed for a string of bomb blasts
since 2006. Twenty-two of its members have so far been arrested for alleged
involvement in terror strikes.
Yasin was named in the accounts provided to
the police by Pune resident Mohammed Akbar Ismail Chaudhry, a key accused
in the August 2007 Hyderabad twin blasts. The ATS suspects that his brother
Mohsin was also involved in the execution of the Pune blast.
According to the information provided to the police by over half-a-dozen IM
men arrested since September 2008, Yasin supplied explosives, held training
sessions in bomb making and even assembled bombs in a few cases. He is believed
to have also supplied ammonium nitrate used in the September 2008 Delhi blasts.
As per the police, the Bhatkal brothers had
used their coastal hometown of Bhatkal as an IM hub. They had got support
from Simi activists for forming IM. The core group of IM had organised training
camps for Simi members in the Hubli-Dharwad region and at Alwaye in Kerala.