NEW DELHI, Mar 25:
Delhi Police today virtually broke the back of terror outfit Indian Mujahideen with the arrest of its chief of Indian Operations Tehsin Akhtar alias Monu, who was wanted in a number of bombings in the country, from near Kakarvitta Indo-Nepal border in Darjeeling district of West Bengal.
“23-year-old Monu, a resident of Darbhanga in Bihar, was acting as the chief of IM’s India operations after the arrest of Ahmad Siddhibappa Zarar alias Yasin Bhatkal. He was Bhatkal’s key aide and a protégé and is wanted for a series of terrorist strikes spread over various states”, Special Commissioner (Special Cell) S N Shrivastava told reporters here.
“He was the key link between IM and other splinter terror outfits which have emerged from the umbrella of Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI),” he said.
He was arrested by a team of Special Cell of Delhi Police from Pani Tanki police station area in Kakarvitta of Darjeeling district at around 10:30 a.m. here this morning when he was entering India from Nepal, he said.
“Monu is also close to Riyaz and Iqbal Bhatkal, the IM bosses currently based in Pakistan and SIMI’s ‘Black Beauty’ module of Ranchi.
“The importance of his arrest can be gauged by the fact that he was instrumental in setting up some IM modules. He was their prime motivator and ideologue,” said Shrivastava.
His arrest came days after Special Cell nabbed another top IM operative Zia Ur Rehman alias Waqas from Ajmer in Rajasthan along with three of his associates.
“We worked on the lead we got from their interrogation and zeroed in on Monu,” said Shrivastava.
Sources said that soon after he came to know of the arrest of Waqas and company, he fled from his hideout from Nepal and was trying to slip to Bangladesh when he was nabbed.
He is being brought to Delhi by a special plane from the nearest aerodrome, police said.
Police said that more arrests are expected in the next couple of days.
“Known by several names like Monu alias Sahil alias Sameer alias Hassan, he first came in contact with IM in 2010 and became a protégé of Yasin Bhatkal. He was introduced to Bhatkal and Kamal Akhtar by Gayur Ahmad Jamali, who was arrested by Special Cell in 2011. He got training from Bhatkal, learned to make IEDs,” said Shrivastava.
With the arrest of Tehseen, almost the entire top leadership of Indian Mujahideen has been nabbed by the police.
Indian Mujahideen co-founder Ahmad Siddhibappa Zarar alias Yasin Bhatkal, Tehseen Akhtar alias Monu, Asadullah Akhtar alias Haddi and Zia Ur Rehman alias Waqas were the brains behind almost every IM attack on Indian soil.
Ahmad Siddhibappa Zarar alias Yasin Bhatkal and Asadullah Akhtar alias Haddi were arrested from Indo-Nepal border last year while Waqas and Monu were on the run.
Waqas and the other three of the Rajasthan module had been working under the direction of Akhtar who had told them to be ready for strike but did not disclose the target, police said.
According to police, the interrogation of the three youth, Mahruf, Shaquib and Waqar who were arrested from Rajasthan along with Waqas have revealed that they were planning to do something in retaliation of the riots which took place in Gopalgarh town of Rajasthan.
Tehseen Akhtar alias Monu’s first assignment was in 2010 when he received Waqas who had reached Kathmandu from Pakistan along with Asadullah Akhtar alias Haddi (arrested with Yasin Bhatkal) in first week of September.
From Nepal, Waqas came to Darbhanga in Bihar where he met Yaseen Bhatkal and other members of the Bihar module of IM. This module then carried out the Jama Masjid attacks on September 19, 2010. After successfully executing the Jama Masjid terror strikes, Waqas returned to Bihar, police said.
Tehseen Akhtar along with Yasin, Haddi and Waqas was also involved in the Mumbai serial blasts carried out at Opera House and Zaveri Bazar on July 12, 2011 when Yasin was the boss, police said.
“Monu had planted the bomb at the foot-over bridge at Dadar station. He was the one who had set up an ordnance factory with Yasin Bhatkal in Nangloi area of Delhi which too was busted by the Special Cell,” said Shrivastava.
After the Mumbai blasts, the next strike carried out by them was the Pune serial blasts of August 1, 2012.
In early February, 2013, Waqas and Haddi shifted to Hyderabad where Tehseen also joined them.
The Hyderabad serial blasts were executed by them on February 21, 2013. After carrying out the strike, Rehman returned to Mangalore and stayed there for some time.
When the news broke of Yasin and Haddi’s arrest by Indian security agencies, Riyaz Bhatkal directed Rehman and Tehseen to immediately leave the Mangalore hideout, police said.
“Waqas moved to Munnar in Kerala and rented a house there where he lived alone. Here he even worked at a tea shop. Monu also visited him there for a short period. After staying in Munnar, Waqas kept travelling through Odisha, West Bengal and Maharashtra while staying in touch with Riyaz Bhatkal and Monu,” the official said.
Upon directions from Tehseen to come to Ajmer for an assignment, Rehman reached Ajmer from where he was arrested on Saturday morning.
Monu had also stayed for some time in Rajasthan with Mahruf, Shaquib and Waqar.
This Rajasthan module was created by him when he stayed there after IM carried out the Hyderabad serial blasts of February 2013 where Monu had planted the IED at Dilsukhnagar.
According to police, the Special Cell, which had first busted the Bihar module of IM, had been working on this present IM Chief since a long time.
However, even though one after another member of this terrorist outfit was arrested since November 2011, this tech-savvy accused remained beyond the reach of security agencies and kept executing one after another sensational terrorist strikes.
Sources said that it was sustained efforts to nab Tehsin alias Monu which first bore fruit on March 22 with the arrest of Pakistani terrorist Zia-Ur-Rehman alias Waqas who was arrested from Ajmer and following this, the next day, the Rajasthan module of this outfit was busted with the arrest of three IM operatives.
Police also recovered huge cache of suspected explosive material, detonators, circuits, timers etc. And claimed to have averted an impending “spectacular” terrorist strike.
“Their interrogations provided credence to the understanding developed by the Special Cell over the preceding months that Monu was operating from beyond the Indian borders but was on and off visiting various cities in India clandestinely for keeping a tab on the various activities being carried out by sleeper modules and which were being coordinated by Pakistan based Riyaz and Iqbal Bhatkal brothers,” said Shrivastava.
Sources also said that the arrest of Waqas was followed by a tip off from one of Special Cell sources that Tehsin alias Monu had moved out from his hideout in Nepal and was expected to enter Indian territory and may cross-over to Bangladesh where the IM bosses had assured him of providing shelter for the time being. (PTI)
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