Hyderabad blasts: Yasin Bhatkal's aide confesses involvement

New Delhi: A close aide of Indian Mujahideen (IM) co-founder Yasin Bhatkal, has confessed before a magistrate that he had assembled the explosives and had “guided” the members of the terror outfit while planting bombs at Hyderabad’s Dilsukhnagar area in February last year. In his confessional statement recorded under section 164 of the CrPC in October last year, Asadullah Akhtar said the February 21, 2013 twin blasts at Dilsukhnagar area were executed by him on the instructions of another IM co-founder Riyaz Bhatkal who is now in Pakistan. [caption id=“attachment_1409687” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  AFP[/caption] The confessional statement given by Akhtar has been filed in a Delhi court by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) along with its charge sheet against Yasin Bhatkal, Akhtar and two other suspected terrorists. Akhtar told the magistrate that in December 2012, he had a chat with Riyaz Bhatkal and they discussed “to do something in Hyderabad” and in that month itself, they received the money through hawala transactions in Bangalore. He also said that in January last year, they received the explosives which were sent by Riyaz Bhatkal and thereafter, they conducted a reccee in Dilsukhnagar. “On February 18, 2013, we finally decided the place as Dilsukhnagar. Thereafter, I decided the spot….we wanted to do three serial blasts but due to shortage of explosives, we decided only at the above said two places,” he said. Akhtar, a permanent resident of Azamgarh in Uttar Pradesh, told the magistrate that a “test blast” was conducted before the twin blasts and after the preparations, he had “assembled the explosives”. “Monu (IM operative) has planted (bomb) at Al Mirchi centre and Waqas (IM member) planted near Dilsukhnagar bus stand and by that time, I was nearby them…,” he said. The twin blasts had rocked Hyderabad’s Dilsukhnagar area on February 21 last year claiming 16 lives and the explosions were triggered by IEDs. Over 100 persons were injured in the blasts. PTI