New Delhi: Indian Mujahideen co-founder Muhammad Ahmad Zarar Siddibapa alias Yasin Bhatkal during his interrogation has said that he trained in a Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) camp in 2006, according to sources.
Bhatkal was arrested from the India-Nepal border along with his close aide Asadullah Akhtar alias Haddi. Bhatkal, the head of Indian Mujahideen's operations in India, is the key suspect in the Pune German Bakery and Hyderabad Dilsukhnagar blasts.
Meanwhile, Samajwadi Party's Kamal Farooqi's triggered a controversy by his comment on the arrest of Bhatkal. He had said that Bhatkal's arrest may have been due to his religion. Farooqi, however, apologised for raising doubts over the terror links of Bhatkal stating that his comments were misunderstood.
"If my statement has been misunderstood I am sorry about the whole thing. But my point is the community should not be victimized for Yasin Bhatkal. Let us treat it as a case where investigation is going on," Farooqi said.
"If he is a terrorist then he should not be spared but if he has been arrested just because he is a Muslim, then caution should be exercised as we don't want to send a wrong message to an entire community that we are trying to malign the community's image without a thorough investigation," he had said on the arrest of 30-year-old Bhatkal who is wanted in several blast cases.
Meanwhile, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Friday got the custody of Bhatkal and his key aide Haddi for 12 days. Bhatkal was produced in the Patiala House Court in Delhi on Friday with the NIA requesting his custody for 14 days. But the court granted his custody for 12 days.
However, defence lawyer MS Khan claimed that the arrested man was not Bhatkal. "The NIA has no grounds for seeking custody. Also, the man arrested is not Bhatkal. The man that has been caught, his name is Mohammad Ahmed," he claimed.
Sources said that Bhatkal, who was arrested on Thursday from the Indo-Nepal border, has accepted his role in the Varanasi and Hyderabad blast during the preliminary enquiry.
One laptop and mobile phone have also been recovered from him. Both these were very important since Yasin is known to rely on voice over internet protocol for his communications with other members of module and his handlers technical surveillance helped nab him.
Bhatkal was arrested in a joint operation involving the Intelligence Bureau, Research and Analysis Wing and Bihar Police. The actual arrest of Bhatkal and Haddi was carried out by the Bihar Police team led by Motihari Superintendent of Police Vinay Kumar, who stayed in the area for five days and carried out the reconnaissance.
Haddi is around 28 years old and hails from Azamgarh in Uttar Pradesh. The Indian Mujahideen came into being after the ban on Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI).
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