Key IM men may have fled abroad

Suspected Indian Mujahideen (IM) operatives Riyaz Bhatkal and his Karnataka-based explosives expert Shahrukh might have fled the country, reports Abhishek Sharan.

Suspected Indian Mujahideen (IM) operatives Riyaz Bhatkal and his Karnataka-based explosives expert Shahrukh might have fled the country.

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Shahrukh supplied the improvised explosives devices (IEDs) used in the September 13 Delhi blasts.

Bhatkal and Shahrukh might have taken shelter in a neighbouring country that could be even ‘Pakistan’, said a senior intelligence bureau officer.

Police are looking for both to unmask the IM’s terror modules in south India that provided logistical help to carry out the Delhi blasts.

The shadowy Shahrukh is believed to have stopped using his mobile phone, a senior intelligence bureau officer told HT.

Details of telephonic intercepts available with the IB showed that Bhatkal, an engineer who is allegedly a gangster-turned-jihadi, was in Karnataka in September.

Shahrukh allegedly supplied the IEDs used in all the terror attacks since last year’s court blasts in UP.

Though the Karnataka police on Friday nabbed four alleged aides of Shahrukh, they are struggling to gather more details on his activities, especially related to the serial blasts in that city on July 25.

The only information with anti-terror agencies is that Shahrukh is ‘tall and fair’, according to revelations made by arrested IM operative Mohammed Saif, who is in custody of Delhi Police.

Saif is allegedly part of the 14-man team of the terror group’s slain operations chief Atif Ameen.

Shahrukh handed over to Saif and Shadab Bhai aka Malik 10 “disassembled IEDs” in Mangalore in the last week of August, according to the Saif’s interrogation report.