Bangladesh, Nepal hand in arrest of top IM operatives
NEW DELHI: The arrest of Indian Mujahideen’s (IM) two top functionaries, Tehseen Akhtar and Zia-ur-Rehman, would not have been possible but for the quiet cooperation extended by Bangladesh as well as Nepal.
Tehseen Akhtar alias Monu, the IM’s acting chief, was nabbed on March 24 near the IndiaNepal border in Darjeeling, barely a few days after the arrest of the outfit’s bomb-maker Ziaur-Rehman alias Waqas from Rajasthan along with three of his associates.
Believed to be a resident of Punjab, Pakistan, Waqas had slipped into Bangladesh as soon as he received the news of IM cofounder Yasin Bhatkal’s arrest.
“Bhatkal was nabbed after the Intelligence Bureau (IB) Patna unit got a source-based tip-off,” a senior IB official confirmed to HT.
“But the leak about his arrest enabled Waqas and Tehseen to escape from Mangalore hours before a police raid on August 29 last year,” the official said.
For over a month, officials from India’s external intel- ligence agency R&AW and Bangladesh’s Directorate General of Forces Intelligence (DGFI) worked closely to track down Waqas, before sharing these with the Delhi Police’s special cell.
Dhaka’s cooperation came after New Delhi threw in its weight behind prime minister Sheikh Hasina as she fought the last general elections despite massive protests from the international community.
“R&AW’s assessments also indicated that Pakistan’s ISI will create trouble during the hanging of Abdul Qadeer Mollah,” a senior external intelligence official told HT.
Mollah was found guilty of war crimes during the liberation of Bangladesh in 1971. “New Delhi shared specifics about ISI’s role with Dhaka that helped foster cooperation on tracking the IM,” the official said.
In February this year, DGFI reported that it had managed to develop leads on Waqas’ location.
Two other intelligence officials from R&AW confirmed that DGFI conducted raids in Bangladesh to pressurise Waqas into slipping back into India. In early March, as Waqas was attempting to enter India through the Indo-Bangladesh border, he was intercepted and detained by Indian intelligence.
However, the Indian intelligence officials decided to keep Waqas’ detention a secret to ensure that his IM colleague Akhtar was not alerted.
Officials of the Delhi Police special cell told HT that central intelligence agencies had shared these inputs with them as well.
“Since Delhi Police was also working on a parallel track, we decided to conduct our operation jointly,” a senior intelligence official told HT.
Delhi Police maintains that Waqas was expected to arrive in Ajmer by train on March 22 and was arrested at the spot.
“Central intelligence agencies have helped us but we cannot reveal any details,” a senior Delhi Police officer said.
NEW DELHI SHARED SPECIFICS ABOUT ISI’S ROLE WITH DHAKA WHICH HELPED FOSTER COOPERATION ON TRACKING THE IM
A key to Akhtar’s arrest were the chats the IM members would have using Yahoo Mail chat services. Bhatkal’s 161-page interrogation report details several of these chats.
The joint R&AW and Delhi Police team made Waqas initiate chats with Akhtar to track his location. Waqas proposed a terror attack in Rajasthan drawing out Akthar from his hideout in Nepal.
At this point, Nepal’s National Investigation Department (NID) swung into action and shared the details of Akhtar’s movements with R&AW. As soon as he crossed the border, he was held as well.
However, the handing over of Waqas and Akhtar to the Delhi Police special cell has now created a problem for the NIA that has pending FIRs against them.
Our investigation was broader and as a federal agency, it is our mandate to probe terror attacks. We have tracked down key payments to the IM from Dubai by Abdul Wahid and another person identified as Nur,” an NIA official told HT.