The back of the Indian Mujahideen (IM) has been broken by the Intelligence Bureau (IB) with nabbing of IM’s 23-year-old chief Tehseen Akhtar from Nepal on Monday night in a re-run of the successful operation involving Yasin Bhatkal last August.
All top four IM men in India — Bhatkal, Tehseen, Asadullah Akhtar and Waqas — are now behind the bars even as IB is pursuing a country-wide operation with the help of Delhi Police and Uttar Pradesh Police to nab second-rung associates of the IM.
Coming on the eve of the general elections, the UPA government is expected to tout this as a testimony of its strong resolve to stamp out terrorism — a point on which BJP has labeled UPA as a weak government so far. “In the last one year or so, we have dealt a severe blow to the IM with major arrests being made due to a sustained pursuit by our security agencies. The arrest of Tehseen is a spectacular success,” Minister of State for Home RPN Singh said. The National Investigation Agency (NIA), in its charge-sheet against Bhatkal, had said disgruntled Muslim youths had come together after the 2002 Gujarat riots to form the IM.
A home ministry official said that interrogation of Waqas, who was arrested on March 22 revealed that Tehseen was hiding in Nepal. Tehseen, a native of Darbhanga in Bihar, took control of the IM after the Intelligence Bureau launched a covert operation in Pokhra in Nepal last August to nab Yasin Bhatkal and Asadullah Akhtar and hand them over to the NIA.
The IB nabbed Tehseen from Nepal on Monday night and brought him across the border where Delhi Police team took him under custody. The official refrain from the Delhi Police Special Commissioner (Special Cell) SN Srivastava, however, was that Delhi Police arrested Tehseen from Darjeeling near the Indo-Nepal border as he was trying to cross over into India.
Delhi Police officials said the arrested IM module did not have any political personality or Narendra Modi as a target but were instead looking at retaliatory strikes.
Tehseen has been brought to Delhi by a special flight on Tuesday night.
Till last December, Tehseen was staying in Jodhpur with the three men from Rajasthan who were arrested along with Waqas last week.
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