Terror hunt: Yasin Bhatkal lived with wife in Delhi

“Six magazines,several ounces of ammonium nitrate,live cartridges and chemical substances were recovered,which have now been sent for forensic examination. The set-up belonged to Mohammad Irshad Khan. It was here that Yasin Bhatkal sought shelter,” said a senior police officer.

Irshad,a 52-year-old originally from Samastipur in Bihar,was picked up in Chennai on November 27. Top police sources said Yasin had been married to Irshad’s daughter six months ago,and spent a lot of time with Irshad in the Meer Vihar factory.

Yasin’s wife lived in her father’s home in Shaheen Bagh in Okhla’s Abul Fazl Enclave,a senior officer said. This is the same neighbourhood where Batla House is located — the scene of the September 19,2008 encounter in which police gunned down two alleged IM terrorists,and Special Cell Inspector Mohan Chand Sharma was killed.

Local people in Meer Vihar told The Indian Express today that Irshad had a son-in-law,but they did not know much about him. “The son-in-law would come to fill water in two drums from a hand pump outside,” said a neighbour who declined to be identified.

Yasin Bhatkal or Yasin Ahmad Siddibappa,also known as Shahrukh,is among the IM’s most senior leaders and,according to police,the man who put together the module and financed and directed its operations,which included last year’s attacks in Pune,Bangalore and Delhi. The module had planned to target Bangalore on December 6,the police said yesterday.

The alleged ordnance factory in Meer Vihar was in a part of a two-room tenement,still incomplete,standing next to a buffaloes’ tabela.

The Indian Express found the two side-by-side rooms locked,their roll-down shutters down. Through a gap in the wall could be seen some literature in a script resembling Urdu,an iron welding machine,broken furniture and several iron rods. A large sheet of metal,golden in colour,hung from the ceiling,

“Those shutters have always been down. We saw the inhabitants occasionally,but they never spoke to anyone,” said an area resident who did not give his name.

Irshad,local people said,is an elderly man with a beard who kept to himself. “About two weeks ago,I saw him sitting on a green and white mat,cutting an iron pipe. He told me that he intended to let out the place and leave,” said the neighbour.

Another man whom The Indian Express spoke to claimed he had occupied the room next to Irshad’s,and had been suprised by the unusual quietness inside.

“I had rented the next-door tenement for 15 days after my factory elsewhere had to be shut. I saw the two men but they never spoke to anyone. I never heard anything either. They were really quiet for people who were running a welding factory,” he said.

Police sources said Irshad’s visiting card carried his name and that of his factory — “Peace Engineering Works”. The address of the factory on the card was,“C 459-460 Meer Vihar,25-foota Road,Mangal Bazar,Madanpur Dabas,Delhi 81”. There was a mobile phone number: 9810927435.

At the bottom of the card was another address,presumably of Irshad’s residence: “Shaheen Bagh,Thokar Number 8,Abul Fazl Enclave,Okhla”,the sources said.