There is still an uneasy calm pervading the two-room factory in Meer Vihar area of Outer Delhi’s Nangloi. The address —C459-460 — was raided by Delhi Police in 2011 and sealed later. Arrested co-founder of IM, Yasin Bhatkal and his father-in-law Mohd Irshad Khan, another alleged IM operative, are supposed to have manufactured weapons there covertly.
Following the raid, police recovered six magazines, chemicals and a few live cartridges. People living in the vicinity do not like talking about the ‘duo’ who worked at the unit. However, one reluctantly said a fair young male, usually in a kurta pyjama was often seen fetching water from a hand pump.
“They would not mingle with the locals. They occasionally talked to neighbours. No one had any inkling what they were up to. The shutter of the units would remain down all the time,” said the neighbour.
Irshad, a 52-year-old, originally hails from Samastipur, Bihar. He was picked up by the police from Chennai in November 2011. According to police, after marrying Zahida in 2008, the daughter of Irshad, Bhatkal used to spend a lot of time with his father-in-law in the Meer Vihar unit.