Six IM operatives used tech to evade police

Cheap phones and free software available at the click of a button is all that six alleged Indian Mujahideen (IM) operatives, who executed August’s Pune serial blasts, needed to evade security agencies as they communicated with Riyaz Bhatkal, the outfit’s boss. Jatin Anand reports.

Cheap phones and free software available at the click of a button is all that six alleged Indian Mujahideen (IM) operatives, who executed August’s Pune serial blasts, needed to evade security agencies as they communicated with Riyaz Bhatkal, the outfit’s boss.

After having been introduced to Bhatkal by Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) commander Fayyaz Kagzi via Skype during their trips to Saudi Arabia over several years, the men behind the Pune terror bid were instructed to purchase low-end smartphones and establish a small tours and travel business as soon as they flew back to the country, sources said.

“Though they had initially used Skype and ‘Drafts’ folders in e-mail accounts to communicate with Riyaz Bhatkal initially, as soon as they came to Delhi, Bhatkal instructed them to purchase Nokia phones and install a particular software that would enable them to communicate while keeping their cell phone ID hidden,” an officer said.

The four men allegedly involved in the Pune serial blasts and who were planning a similar bid in Delhi during the upcoming festival season — Asad Khan, Imran Khan, Sayyed Feroze and Langde Irfan Mustafa — were arrested by the Delhi Police Special Cell between September 26 and early October.

Meanwhile, sources said, the four IM men under arrest had also forayed into the tours and travel business to keep security agencies from suspecting them of their links to a terror outfit given their frequent trips abroad.

“Sometime in early 2011, apart from establishing a small real estate business, the men also started a travel agency to cover their long and frequent trips to the Saudi capital — all of which were to meet Kagzi and seek training for creating Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs),” the officer added.