The dossier prepared by Delhi Police and central security agencies states that IM bosses Riyaz and Iqbal Bhatkal had attended a meeting in a house in the Walled City area after the infamous Batla House encounter.
It was there that they decided to put Yasin at the forefront after Atif Ameen was killed in an encounter with Special Cell. Yasin, who is a mysterious figure even in his native village Bhatkal in Karnataka, chalked out a different strategy and shifted the base of Indian Mujahideen (IM) operatives to Bihar to dodge Indian security agencies. There are 25 or even more such operatives still at large, the dossier states.
Special Cell of Delhi Police had busted a pan-India terror module of IM on November 30, 2011 and arrested six persons, including a Pakistani national identified as Mohammad Adil, Mohammad Qateel Siddique, Mohammad Irshad Khan, Gauhar Aziz Khomani, Gayur Ahmad Jamali and Abdur Rehman. Investigations have revealed that it was Irshad Khan and Mohammad Adil who had carried out the attacks outside Jama Masjid. Yasin alias Shahrukh had provided them with logistics and finance. The attack was carried out to avenge the Batla House encounter of September 19, 2008 that had seen IM’s Indian head, Atif Ameen, being gunned down by Special Cell.
Delhi Police investigations had then revealed that Iqbal, Yasin and Riyaz — the three Bhatkal brothers involved in September 13, 2008 Delhi serial blasts — were shifting base frequently since then. They had met in Pune and had escaped to Pakistan. Yasin Bhatkal had used his alias for the 2008 Delhi serial blasts and had proved to be elusive before being intercepted by Indian agencies on the Raxaul-Jogbani area on Indo-Nepal border.
Bhatkal is wanted by Delhi Police in three major cases, including the 2008 blasts, Nangloi factory where he was setting up a plant to manufacture arms and ammunition and the Jama Masjid firing case. The Delhi Police had also issued a Non Bailable Warrant (NBW) against him.
“He was once arrested by Kolkata Police but managed to give them the slip since he did not reveal his identity. Since the police could not confirm the same, he was let off,” said a senior police official.
Born on January 15, 1983, Yasin was a local lad from Karnataka’s Bhatkal district. It is said he was ambling down the corridors of a college in his district when he walked in on a lecture on Muslims and their identity by Maulana Shish. This serendipitously influenced Bhatkal enough to want to meet Shish in person.
Shish used to set up a perfume shop near the college in the evenings. Bhatkal met him and a close friendship developed between the two. later Bhatkal also met Mohammad Fasi, a student at the same college. “Bhatkal shared his thoughts with Fasi and the two went to Darbhanga where he inspired and influenced his family members. later they went to Nepal on a holiday,” said a senior police official.
When Fasi returned from Nepal, his doctor father objected to his son’s liaison with Bhatkal and asked him to concentrate on his studies instead. But the influence on Fasi was so lasting that he did not listen to his father’s wiser counsel and went ahead with Bhatkal to wage war against the Indian state, the official added.