The Intelligence Bureau has sent out an alert to various states that Indian Mujahideen men are still at large and trying to regroup for fresh action. The IM was responsible for the serial blasts in Delhi, Ahmedabad, Jaipur and Bangalore last year.

The alert, which has been sent out to Anti-Terror Squads (ATS) of several states, is based on intercepts of emails between 11 key IM operatives, who are absconding.

They are Ariz Khan alias Junaid, Shahzad Ahmed alias Pappu, Mohammad Sajid alias Imam Saab, Mirza Shadab Beig, Mohammad Khalid, Dr Shahnawaz, Hakim, Asadullah Akhtar alias Asadullah Khan, Salman (all of Azamgarh), Iqbal Batkal and Riyaz Batkal of Karnataka, and Asif Raza Khan of West Bengal. Last year, the Delhi Police had announced a reward of Rs 1 lakh each on these men, wanted for the September 13, 2008 serial blasts.

Of them, only Hakim was arrested by the UP ATS in January.

The IB sources said the emails of Shadab Beig, Shahnawaz and Iqbal Batkal were first tracked in December 2008.

The mails carried mainly exchanges regarding the police operations and developments in terror cases involving the IM men. Later emails indicated that the IM men were trying to regroup to carry out more blasts, said an intelligence official.

Uttar Pradesh ATS DIG Rajiv Sabbarwal said: “The IM and SIMI operatives arrested so far were either those who executed the blasts or those who had provided the logistic support.

The 11 absconding accused include the masterminds —— Riyaz Batkal, Iqbal Batkal, Asif Raza Khan and Dr Shahnawaz. All of them were trained at Lashkar-e-Toiba camps in Pakistan.”

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