Yasin Bhatkal: Questioning to reveal details on terror modules?

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) is expected to bring Yasin Mohammed Ahmed Zarar Siddibappa, better known as one of India’s most wanted terrorists Yasin Bhatkal, to New Delhi later today. The NIA on Thursday secured a three-day transit remand for Bhatkal.

He will be brought to Delhi on Friday on a special BSF plane, said reports.

Investigators said they expect to gain specific information from Bhatkal on the whereabouts of the Shahbandri brothers, Riyaz and Iqbal Bhatkal, co-founders of the Indian Mujahideen. The duo is suspected to be hiding in Karachi. With Yasin believed to be the single-point contact for Pakistan-based handlers of the Indian Mujahideen, his arrest would deal a body blow for the IM module in India. It was Yasin BHatkal who passed on cash and other assistance to IM members in India, said sources.

Following his production in a Motihari court in Bihar, Bhatkal was reported as having confirmed his identity to interrogators of the Bihar Police. However, sources said the NIA would conduct scientific tests to prove his identity beyond a doubt.

Bhatkal, captured raising his cuffed wrists to the cameras while leaving the court late Thursday evening, reportedly appeared remorseless. “Blasts happen everywhere,” he is reported to have said .

Meanwhile, The Indian Express reported that Bhatkal’s wife Zahida continues to live in South Delhi’s Abul Fazl enclave with her mother Mehajani Khanum. Zahida reportedly gives Quran lessons to children in the neighbourhood.

“Thank God, our enemy has been arrested. He ruined my daughter Zahida’s life. Now the truth will emerge," Mehajani is quoted as saying. The family reportedly knew Bhatkal only as Shahrukh.

Mehajani’s husband Mohammed Irshad Khan was also arrested in 2011. According to investigators, Bhatkal and his father-in-law worked together to manufacture ammunition.

Meanwhile, various states’ anti-terror agencies are expected to approach the NIA over the coming days seeking custody of Bhatkal who is wanted in over 40 cases across India including major strikes such as the serial blasts on board local trains in Mumbai in 2006, the German Bakery blast in Pune, the blast outside Chinnaswamy stadium in Bangalore, last year’s Jangli Maharaj Road blasts in Pune and this year’s blasts in Dilsukhnagar, Hyderabad.