The information provided by the last India Mujahideen operative arrested has been ignored by the Union home ministry.
Though both the Central and state governments maintained there have been no intelligence inputs on any fresh terror attacks, Salman, alias Chotu, an IM operative arrested by the Uttar Pradesh ATS, had revealed IM’s plans to strike Mumbai soon. He had also said during interrogation that the IM were regrouping in order to strike India's cities, including Mumbai.
According to a senior official attached to the UP ATS, Salman had revealed that IM founder Riyaz Bhatkal had given him clear instructions to start recruiting afresh as he wanted to strike Mumbai as soon as possible.
A source said that as most of the IM operatives had been arrested by the Ahmedabad and Mumbai police for their alleged role in the Ahmedabad blasts, Bhatkal wanted to recruit new operatives.
Pak yet to confirm death of top IM man
Report from Bengaluru
Six months after he was allegedly gunned down in Pakistan, India is yet to receive a confirmation on the death of country’s most-wanted terrorist, Riyaz Shahbandari better know as Riyaz Bhatkal.
Top intelligence and investigating agencies continue to remain clueless about Riyaz, who co-founded the Indian Mujahideen — the Indian wing of the Pakistan-based terror outfit Lashkar-e-Tayyaba — in the last decade along with his brother Iqbal and close aide Abdus Subhan Qureshi alias Tauqeer and master-minded major terrorist attacks in the country.
“We have no confirmation regarding Riyaz Shahbandari. We only heard that he was gunned down in Karachi in January this year. We have sought information from Pakistan but they have not responded so far. The news of his death could be fabricated and he could be alive regrouping his outfit,” said an intelligence officer.
Riyaz’s family in Bhatkal, a coastal town in Karnataka, is surprisingly unaffected by the news of his death.
"They have been leading a normal life even after the news of his death. They have not even observed the customary 40th day ritual or the purdah during which the deceased’s wife surrenders her marital jewellery,” said a police officer.
Riyaz’s wife Nasuha and their three children live with his parents Ismail and Saeeda in their ancestral house. Little is also known about Tauqeer, the point-man of the Indian Mujahideen and the main conspirator behind the 2008 serial blasts in Ahmedabad.
According to the Central Intelligence agencies, Tauqeer, who was last seen at the India-Nepal border with a close aide, Mujib Sheikh, who was recently arrested by the Madhya Pradesh Anti-Terrorist Squad, is now recruiting jihadists for the Indian Mujahideen from Azamgarh in UP.
“We have no news on the whereabouts of Tauqeer, Iqbal and Mohammed Ahmed Zarar alias Yasin Bhatkal, the prime suspect in the February 2010 Pune German Bakery blast case,” said the officer.