UP ATS gets court nod to grill Yasin Bhatkal, others

LUCKNOW: A team of the Uttar Pradesh Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) will grill Indian Mujahideen operatives Muhammad Ahmed Zarar Siddibapa better known as Yasin Bhatkal, Asadullah Akhtar aka Haddi Tehsin Akhter and Ziaur-Rahman who are lodged in Tihar jail, Delhi.

A Delhi court on Saturday granted permission to the UP ATS to record the statements of Bhatkal, Assadullah, Tehsin and Zia-ur-Rahman in connection with cases lodged against them in Uttar Pradesh.

Inspector general (IG), ATS, Rajeev Sabbarwal said, “An ATS team will soon visit Delhi to grill the IM operatives”.

The UP police launched a hunt for Tehseen after the bomb blast at the Shitlaghat in Varanasi on December 7, 2010. The picture of Tahseen was captured in the video film of a foreign tourist while he was shooting the Ganga aarti programme with a camera. The ATS also plans to collect information about the IM network in UP and

AN ANTI-TERRORIST SQUAD WILL SOON VISIT DELHI TO GRILL THE INDIAN MUJAHIDEEN OPERATIVES

RAJEEV SABBARWAL, IG, ATS

its role in other bomb blasts.

Bhatkal and Asadullah were arrested in a joint operation by the Intelligence Bureau (IB) and the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) near the India-Nepal border on August 29 last year. Later, the special cell of Delhi police arrested Tehsin on March 25 near Darjeeling, West Bengal. Zia-ur- Rehman was arrested in Ajmer on March 22.

Though no case has been registered against Bhatkal and Asadullah in UP, the investigation agency believes the duo was involved in bomb blasts in Varanasi, Gorakhpur, Lucknow and Faizabad. Bhatkal was the key conspirators and recruiter of the Indian Mujahideen and set up terror modules in various districts, a police officer alleged.