arrested crossingthe Indo-Nepal border and later brought in a BSF aircraft to Delhi.

No doubt,Indian authorities say that Bhatkal’s capture is a major achievement for the country’s intelligence agencies and akey point should not be missed that the arrest came close on the heels of another prize catch in August 2013 when Abdul Karim Tunda,an alleged bomb maker for Lashkar-e-Taiba,was arrested.“The arrest of Bhatkal and Abdul Karim confirm that the UPA government is sincerely working to fight the terror menace,”declared Minister of State for Home,R P N Singh in no time.

Curiously enough,security analyst Vidyarthi Kumar says,Indian Mujahideen co-founder Yasin Bhatkal’s arrest has sought to open a new vista in the anti-terror working module of the Congress-led UPA regime,which was hitherto going soft on the menace guarding its electoral interests,namely the minority votes.

Many skeptics like BJP spokesman and MP,Shahnawaz Hussain say that the hyper active mould against terrorism by the Congress-led government has perhaps surprised many.But the truth is,it is not new altogether.

Bhatkal’s capture is a major breakthrough for India’s security agencies.

In November,2012 the government hanged Pakistani terrorist Ajmal Kasab and in February 2013 terrorist Afzal Guru,responsible for Parliament attack in November 2001 too was hanged.“The Congress government seems to be getting jittery over its growing unpopularity vis-à-vis the renewed popularity of Hindutva force BJP and Narendra Modi.Hanging Pakistani Ajmal Kasab and Afzal Guru and then the quick action to nab Bhatkal and Abdul Karim all these must be seen in the total perspective,”says an intelligence official.

Some Congress leaders privately feel that the execution of Afzal and these arrests of top terror leaders would steal away the thunder from the opposition BJP campaign that the government was going soft on terrorism.Giving further credence to this renewed mission for itself,the Home Ministry is now working overtime to get hold of fugitive don Dawood Ibrahim,also a declared terrorist and chiefly responsible for scores of deaths during the serial blasts in Mumbai in 1993.

In fact,on August 27th 2013,displaying new confidence,Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde told Indian Parliament(Lok Sabha)that Dawood Ibrahim and Jamaat-ud-Dawa chief Hafiz Saeed are in Pakistan and New Delhi has pressed for their extradition with Pakistani authorities to India at the earliest.“We have already mentioned about these terrorists(in meeting with the Pakistani Interior Minister)that they are staying in Karachi or somewhere else in Pakistan that they have to hand them over to India,”Shinde said in a reply to a supplementary question from BJP member Ananth Kumar.

Yasin,originally named Mohammad Ahmed Zarar Siddibappa,hails from the southern state of Karnataka and is on India’s list of 12 most-wanted terror suspects.In fact,he got the‘Bhatkal’name after a small town in Karnataka where he was born.Yasin is also alleged to have played an active rolein the 2006 Mumbai serial train blasts in which as many as 187 people were killed and over 700 injured.He is also wanted in connection with a series of deadly bomb attacks in Pune,Delhi,Ahmedabad and Hyderabad.Now interrogators are working full time to dig out vital information from the terror mastermind.Sources said that Bhatkal had met many Major-rank officers of Pakistan’s intelligence agency ISI in Karachi and other places.Interestingly,even the Indian Mujahideen headquarters,according to him,is in Karachi.And it was largely due to ISI pressure that the name‘Indian Mujahideen'was selected as that would give the impression that the outfit is basically born out of Indians and run by Indian Muslims who are aggrieved and perhaps have a lot of grievances especially against the likes of Narendra Modi for the Gujarat mayhem of 2002.

Bhatkal also told the NIA that his close aides Riyaz Bhatkal and Iqbal Bhatkal–both from his native village-are also in Karachi.NIA sources said that Bhatkal has also confessed to have brought Pakistani terrorist Mohammad Adil,who is also a mole of Pakistani spy agency Inter-Services Intelligence(ISI),to India.Adil is a good planner and they jointly hatched plans for several blasts at Adil’s Karachi residence.Adil also helped Bhatkal regroup IM in 2009.But having said all this,it ought to be admitted that from UPA’s chief rivals,BJP to a former Home Secretary in the Government of India everyone welcomed the arrest.“We welcome the arrest.The intelligence agencies have done a good job,”BJP spokesman Shahnawaz Hussain told Eastern Panorama.R K Singh,the retired Home Secretary,said ,“His arrest is a big success as the terror mastermind was able to give slip to security agencies more than once”.

Misleading India

According to the Home Ministry data,the Indian Mujahideen was founded around 2002 probably after the anti-Muslim riots in Modi’s Gujarat.The group was declared a terror outfit and banned by the union government on June 4,2010 after reports surfaced about enhanced activities by the group.

Pakistan’s ISI has been‘funding and managing’the terror organization.According to Bhatkal’s interrogators in NIA,he has also told the investigators that the ISI created the Indian Mujahideen to give the impression of home grown terror in India.By floating IM,Pakistan wanted to hide its own footprints on numerous terror strikes in India.Interrogation also revealed Bhatkal’s involvement in at least 10 terror attacks in India since 2007.But one striking feature that has made news is that the probe and prosecution of Pune German Bakery explosion that claimed 17 lives has been allegedly going on an erroneous path.

Based on the probe and prosecution,accused Mirza Himayat Beig has been sentenced to death.Beig was served the death penalty by a Pune court after the charge sheet filed by the Maharashtra ATS claimed he had accompanied Yasin Bhatkal to carry out the attack.However,the Delhi police now claim that Bhatkal told them during his interrogation that Bhatkal had truly executed the attack,but he was accompanied by one Qateel Siddiqui.

So that means Beig’s prosecution and even the death sentence was wrong.The government of India has been obviously embarrassed.The so called‘revelation’by Bhatkal has yet again given an opportunity to radical Islamic clerics and leaders to question the system of jurisprudence in India.

The Congress leaders fear this could be exploited against the party by Muslim groups and pro-Muslim politicians like Samajwadi Party of Mulayam Singh Yadav against them.

The damage control exercise has been started of course belatedly.Shinde,the country’s Home Minister,now says it will be too early to question the authenticity of the probe by Maharashtra Anti-Terrorist Squad.Is Bhatkal trying to mislead Indian security agencies?You can never rule out such a possibility as they rightly say,ambiguity is often the lifeblood of terror groups.

Swati Deb