New Delhi, Aug 29 – Indian Mujahideen chief Yasin Bhatkal, accused of masterminding series of deadly bomb blasts in the country over the years, has been arrested, sources said.
Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde said that Bhatkal was arrested last night and is in the custody of Bihar Police.
The 30-year-old engineering graduate-turned-terrorist from Karnataka, playing hide and seek with security agencies for years, was arrested near Indo-Nepal border close to Gorakhpur in Uttar Pradesh, by National Investigation Agency (NIA) team.
Efforts are being made to extradite him to India.
Bhatkal is a prime suspect in several terror attack cases across the country, including the twin blasts in Hyderabad in February 2013, the blast outside Delhi High Court in September 2011 and Pune’s German Bakery blast case in February 2010.
According to sources, Bhatkal was arrested near Indo-Nepal border close to the Gorakhpur city of Uttar Pradesh.
Sources also said National Security Adviser Shivshankar Menon has briefed Prime Minister Manmohan Singh about the arrest.
Bhatkal’s arrest comes a week after Delhi Police nabbed Laskar-e-Taiba bomb-maker Abdul Karim Tunda.
Bhatkal was first arrested in Kolkata in 2009 but let off after a few days in a fake currency case. He wad wrongly identified as Mohammed Ashraf of Darbhanga, Bihar and only booked for theft. He soon jumped bail and vanished.
“It is a very, very significant catch,” former Intelligence Bureau chief Arun Bhagat told Headlines Today.
“Tunda and Bhatkal can be confronted and they give important information on their tie-ups with other terror groups like Jaish-e-Mohammed and the Pakistani establishment,” he said.
Another former IB chief Ajit Kumar Doval said Bhatkal’s arrest showed the improved coordination between the intelligence agencies and the security agencies in the country.
