Mumbai, January 19: The escape of Indian Mujahideen (IM) operative Yasin Bhatkal has triggered a war of word between the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) and the Delhi police. The ATS has shot off a letter to the Delhi police and the Intelligence Bureau (IB), saying that the ‘leakage’ of information about the entire operation by the Delhi police was hampering the investigation.
According to the state police department, the Delhi police had not kept the ATS in the loop about their on-going operation. “The ATS has written to the Delhi police commissioner and other agencies, including the IB, telling that the leaking of information about this operation was not in the interest of the nation and investigation,” said a senior police officer.
Even the state home ministry, which backs this move of the ATS, has hinted that they too would be communicating with the Union home ministry about the fiasco.
On the other hand, sources said that a similar communication is reportedly done by the Delhi police to the Union home ministry against the ATS, wherein they have blamed the entire botch-up of the operation on the ATS.
Investigations have revealed that Yasin Bhatkal and his associate, the fourth suspect in the 13/7 blasts, had come to the city on July 12 from Bihar and stayed till July 14.
“Since it was Yasin, who had brought the explosives to the city from Bihar, we suspect the explosives were smuggled into the country through Indo-Nepal border. All four of them had assembled it in Byculla on July 12, planted them the next day at three different locations of the city and on July 14, Yasin and the fourth suspect left Mumbai,” the officer said.
The Delhi police, who had busted an IM module in
November last year, were following a tip that Yasin Bhatkal and two Pakistani nationals, Bakas and Tavrez, have been staying in a rented room in Byculla area.
A Delhi police team has been camping in Byculla since the second week of December and one Naqi Ahmed, who is known to Yasin Bhatkal, was along with the police team to guide and inform them whenever Yasin arrives in the city.
On December 11, Bakas and Tavrez had left the Habib Mansion room, while the police learnt that Yasin would be arriving there in a couple of days to collect the deposit money from owner Rubina Qureshi.
On January 7, the Maharashtra ATS team, however, picked up Naqi Ahmed, in a forgery case and summoned Qureshi to the ATS office, which reportedly jeopardised the entire operation. Yasin Bhatkal got a whiff about the entire episode and didn’t return to collect the deposit money.
–Agencies