IB eye on Bihar terror pockets

North Bihar districts and Karnataka have come into focus with Delhi police and Intelligence Bureau sleuths in pursuit of another eight Indian Mujahideen (IM) terrorists who were part of the module headed by Jaish-e-Mohammed-trained Pakistan national Mohammed Adil alias Ajmal. The module is believed to be involved in Pune's German Bakery bombing, Bangalore's Chinnaswamy stadium blasts and the shootout at Jama Masjid in Delhi last year.

North Bihar districts and Karnataka have come into focus with Delhi police and Intelligence Bureau sleuths in pursuit of another eight Indian Mujahideen (IM) terrorists who were part of the module headed by Jaish-e-Mohammed-trained Pakistan national Mohammed Adil alias Ajmal. The module is believed to be involved in Pune's German Bakery bombing, Bangalore's Chinnaswamy stadium blasts and the shootout at Jama Masjid in Delhi last year.

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Apart from Adil and five others arrested, the security agencies are expected to pick up two more persons in Darbanga and Purnea districts on Wednesday night.

Government sources said the 40-year-old Pakistani terrorist admitted to his interrogators he had been trained by Mufti Rauf Asgar, brother of JeM chief Masood Azhar, in Bhawalpur.

Adil was sent to India by IM's founders Riyaz and Iqbal Bhatkal after a meeting in Karachi and linked with Pune blasts main accused Yasin Zarar Siddi Bappa of Bhatkal via Mohammed Qateel Siddiqui.

Siddiqui told his interrogators the Bhatkal brothers stayed in Delhi for two months after the Batla House encounter on September 19, 2008.

While this claim is being verified, the security agencies narrowly missed arresting Yasin Bhatkal, another terrorist from Bhatkal town in Karnataka, during the raids in Madhubani, Darbhanga, Tumkur and Chennai. However, his father-in-law, Mohammed Irshad Khan, has been arrested and new pockets of radicalisation have been identified in North Bihar and among Bihari students studying in private engineering colleges near Chennai.

The arrested terrorists have confirmed Yasin Bhatkal had planted the bomb at the German Bakery in February 2010.

The Chinnaswamy bombing was carried out by Yasin, Qateel, Gayur and one more person, and the Jama Masjid shootout was by Qateel and Adil.

Backed by home minister P Chidambaram, Delhi police and IB sleuths have mounted operations in Chennai, north Bihar and Karnataka, keeping even the NSG on standby with chartered aircraft used to pick up the accused.