ISI on Riyaaz Bhatkal’s trail

The Pakistani intelligence agency is at the brink of arresting Indian Mujahudin co-founder Riyaaz Bhatkal, who is believed to be living in Pakistan, the Delhi Police Special Cell told a city court on Wednesday.

The Pakistani intelligence agency is at the brink of arresting Indian Mujaheedin co-founder Riyaaz Bhatkal, who is believed to be living in Pakistan, the Delhi Police Special Cell told a city court on Wednesday in its charge sheet filed against six suspected men of the terror outfit in a case of allegedly setting up an illegal arms factory in Meer Vihar.

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According a charge sheet filed by the police in the case of the IM Arms Factory found in the outskirts of Delhi’s Meer Vihar, Riyaaz told Tehsin Akhtar, the IM’s chief of operations in India, that after a well-known Talibani terrorist was arrested by the ISI, he, brother and IM co-founder Iqbal Bhatkal and others were expecting the agency to knock on their doors soon as their names had cropped up during interrogation of said terrorist.

IM’s “relationship with ISI was very different than what was perceived by others,” Riyaaz reportedly told Tehsin during a online conversation wherein the two were discussing the possibility of contacting leaders in the banned student organization Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI).

During the same conversation, Riyaaz told Tehsin that IM’s plans to bomb Delhi, Patna were being done “all on their own” and that “they (IM) were not taking anyone’s instructions.”

In the supplementary charge sheet, the police named Tehsin Akhtar, Zia-Ur-Rehman, Mohd Waqar Azhar, Mohd Maroof, Mohd Saquib Ansari and Imteyaz Alam, all of whom are alleged to be top IM operatives, as accused.

They all have been arrested and charge sheeted for various offences punishable under the provisions of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, the Explosive Substances Act, the Arms Act and the IPC.