Bihar Police heaved a sigh of relief following the arrest of Indian Mujahideen (IM) co-founder and one of India’s most wanted terrorists, Yasin Bhatkal and his close aide Asadullah Akhtar from the Indo-Nepal boarder in Raxaul on Thursday.
The entire operation was executed in secrecy as even senior State police officers were not aware of the arrest of Bhatkal and his close aide.
Meanwhile, the Government has sounded an alert in the State, particularly in the border districts following the arrests.
The NIA sleuths produced both of them before the court of Motihari’s Chief Judicial Magistrate SP Shukla who granted three-day transit remand of both terrorists.
The State police are upbeat with the arrest of Bhatkal who had recruited several local youth of northern districts of the State, particularly Darbhanga, Madhubani and Samastipur.
Darbhanga module which was a brainchild of Bhatkal was instrumental in carrying out terror attacks in the country.
The 30-year-old has been on the run since 2008 and is wanted in a string of terror attacks in Ahmedabad, Surat, Bangalore, Pune, Delhi and Hyderabad.
Bihar Police are now expecting that they will be able to demolish the active terror modules once Bhaktal started providing vital information during his interrogation. State Additional Director General of Police (Headquarters) Ravindra Kumar told mediapersons in Patna that a join team of State police and NIA picked up Yasin Bhatkal and Asadullah Akhtar near Nahar Chowk at Raxaul in East Champaran district of Bihar in the wee hours of Thursday. He said that both terrorists have been handed over to the NIA for the further investigation.
State Police chief Abhayanand said Bihar Police played a vital role and provided necessary support to NIA and other Government agencies to nab Bhatkal and his close aide.
Yasin Bhatkal’s Darbhanga module is suspected to be involved in several terror attacks including 13/7 Mumbai blasts, Pune serial blasts and Hyderabad bomb blasts. The ongoing NIA probe into the Bodh Gaya serial blasts had also suspected involvement of IM in the terror attack.
After his arrest, Yasin Bhatkal was interrogated by Bihar Police and it is believed that the police personnel were able to get some vital clues from him during the questioning.