Disjointed reports of arrests made in Bihar,Delhi and Chennai over the past week meshed together in a grand narrative of a sprawled-out terror hunt today,after Delhi Police announced they had arrested six operatives of the Indian Mujahideen (IM) involved in last years terror attacks on German Bakery in Pune,Chinnaswamy stadium in Bangalore and outside Jama Masjid in Delhi. The six men,including a Pakistani from Karachi called Mohammad Adil,were arrested between November 22 and 27,police said. The homegrown module,they claimed,was put together by Yasin Bhatkal alias Yasin Ahmad Siddibappa also known as Shahrukh the shadowy figure from Bhatkal in Karnataka whose name has repeatedly cropped up in operations believed to have been carried out by the IM. Yasin is not among the six arrested. The module had been active for the past two years,and had planned to carry out a terror attack in Bangalore on December 6,police said. Union Home Minister P Chidambaram confirmed that the six alleged IM operatives were suspected of having a hand in the German Bakery (February 13),Chinnaswamy Stadium (April 17) and Jama Masjid (September 19) attacks. Six suspected terrorists have been apprehended. One of them is a Pakistani. The investigation is still under way, Chidambaram said on Wednesday. He declined to provide further details. Two AK-47 rifles along with 50 cartridges,one 9 mm pistol with 14 live cartridges,1.4 kg of a black explosive substance,3.2 kg of a white explosive substance,and 350 g of a granular off-white explosive substance were recovered from the men,police said. Five detonators,fake Indian currency notes with a face value of Rs 2 lakh,and other incriminating material have also been recovered,police said. According to police,the Jama Masjid attack on two Taiwanese tourists was masterminded by Yasin,who placed a bomb inside a car metres away from the masjid. The aim,police said,was to target foreigners before the Commonwealth Games. Yasin,who also goes by the names of Imran and Asif,was the kingpin who provided finance and logistics for the module besides coordinating other IM modules,police said. Two of the six arrested men Mohammad Qateel Siddiqi,27,and Gauhar Aziz Khomani,31 were picked up in Delhi on November 22 and 23 respectively. Two others Gayur Ahmad Jamali,21 and Mohammad Adil,40,were arrested in Bihars Darbhanga and Madhubani on November 24 and 25 respectively. Mohammad Irshad Khan,52,of Samastipur,Bihar,and Abdur Rahman,19,of Darbhanga,were arrested in Chennai on November 27. Siddiqi,Khomani and Jamali too belong to Darbhanga,police said. Four others,from Madhubani,are on the polices radar. A 35-member Special Cell team led by ACP Sanjeev Kumar Yadav,Inspectors Lalit Mohan Negi and Hridaya Bhushan,and Sub-Inspector Chandrika Prashad under the overall supervision of Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime) Ashok Chand,coordinated with central intelligence agencies and the police of West Bengal,Bihar and Tamil Nadu to carry out the operation over 10 days. Siddiqi who police said was also known as Sajjan,Sajan,Javed and Shahjada Salim was the first to be arrested. He was picked up from near Anand Vihar bus terminal with the loaded 9 mm pistol,14 cartridges,and the fake currency. Two fake passports,a forged identity card of the National Cadet Corps,and a fake drivers licence issued in the fictitious name Vivek Mishra,were also recovered. Siddiqis interrogation produced the name of Yasin Bhatkal,and led to the arrest of Khomani the next day. The investigators also travelled to Madhubani,where Jamali was picked up on November 24. The 40-year-old Pakistani,Adil who police said also went by the names of Ajmal and Shoeb was arrested in Madhubani on November 25. Police said Adil had travelled to Delhi on the instructions of the founders of the IM the Shahbandari brothers of Bhatkal,Riyaz and Iqbal. Raids in Chennai on November 27 led to the arrest of Mohammad Irshad Khan,a Samastipur native who lived in Delhi,and Abdur Rahman of Darbhanga,police said. Sources in Kolkata Polices Special Task Force said Siddiqi lived in a rented apartment in central Kolkata along with Yasin in April 2010. The STF stumbled upon them after a consignment of fake Indian currency was seized in Kolkata. On October 8,2011,a Kolkata STF team raided Siddiqis home in Madhubani,but he escaped to Nepal,sources said. The sources said that Siddiqis wife had lodged a complaint of domestic violence in Delhi against him,and it was through the wife that the alleged IM operative was ultimately tracked. (With ENS,Kolkata,New Delhi)
