SEPT 3- Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi is the top target of Indian Mujahideen (IM), Yasin Bhatkal told his interrogators in Bihar.
“The funds flow from our international sympathisers will increase many times if we manage to reach him. Narendra Modi is one to 10 in the list of targets. The rest of the targets figure much below him,” Bhatkal admitted to top NIA and Intelligence officers, who interrogated him in Bihar. According to Bhatkal’s confession, LK Advani is a distant second in the list of IM targets.
“We received plenty of funds after the 26/11 strike against India,” he said before NIA took him to Delhi.
Bhatkal has also told his interrogators that another Samastipur (Bihar) born terrorist Tahsim alias Tasheen Akhtar alias Monu , who was trained in Pakistan, has been sent to India to go after important targets. Bhatkal feigned ignorance about Monu’s whereabouts and did not share details about him with his interrogators.
The interrogators were surprised at the revelation because Monu, an accused in 2010 Chhinnaswami stadium blast, was known just as an old accomplice and a dangerous protege of Bhatkal. Bhatkal, however, has admitted that Monu is now heading a separate IM module.
As a follow up, the NIA team on Monday reached Monu’s village, Maniarpur, in Samatipur district and interrogated his relatives including the terrorist’s father Waseem Akhter.
Besides Monu’s old photographs from family album and his notebooks, the NIA also took blood samples of the parents. The NIA is hoping to develop a DNA profile from the blood samples for positive matching if and when Monu, who operates with many aliases, is arrested.
The top intelligence agencies are extremely worried about the revelations and have conveyed their concern to Gujarat police establishments. Bhatkal also confided that international supporters of Indian Mujahideen are unhappy with their “strike rate” because of which a new terror team has been trained to strike at “big targets” in the run up to the Lok Sabha election.
The IM knows that big political leaders are most vulnerable during their public meetings.
INDIA TODAY
