Author: Shalini Narayan
Publication: The Indian Express
Date: December 2, 2011
URL: http://www.indianexpress.com/news/terror-hunt-yasin-bhatkal-lived-with-wife-in-delhi/883132/0
About eight kilometres from Mundka metro station
is the industrial belt of Meer Vihar in Outer Delhi's Nangloi area. Winding,
dusty roads lead to the village of Meer Vihar Mangal Bazar. It is an unremarkable
setting - except it is here that Yasin Bhatkal, the alleged Indian Mujahideen
(IM) leader security agencies have been scouring the length and breadth of
the country for, is suspected to have been hiding for at least the past six
months.
Late last night, police unearthed what they
said was a small ordnance and weapons factory in a room occupied by Mohammad
Irshad Khan, one of the six alleged IM operatives arrested in a multi-city
terror hunt carried out by the Special Cell of Delhi Police over the last
two weeks of November.
"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.
