Yasin Bhatkal: still at large
Vishwa Mohan, Mateen Hafeez, Neeraj Chauhan & Dwaipayan Ghosh TNN
New Delhi/Mumbai: The Centre on Tuesday came out in support of the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) over Naqi Ahmed’s arrest in connection with the 13/7 blasts, seeking to seal an ugly feud between the country’s leading counter-terror agencies which has exposed that the costly lessons of 26/11 may not have yet been learned.
A day after sources in the Delhi police’s Special Cell, its anti-terror wing, claimed that Naqi was actually an ‘informer’ who would have led them to the founding member of the Indian Mujahideen Yasin Bhatkal and that the ATS had queered their pitch by arresting Naqi, Union home secretary R K Singh publicly defended the state ATS.
“We are happy with the ATS that has cracked the case. It has come to the conclusion (of Naqi’s role) after investigation and has worked out the case based on evidence which will be put through legal procedure,” the home secretary said.
Minorities panel seeks report T he National Commission for Minorities has sought a report from the state government on the arrest of 13/7 accused Naqi Ahmed. Naqi’s brother had met NCM chief Wajahat Habibullah and submitted a plea saying he had been wrongly arrested by the ATS. P 12
13/7 blasts probe may turn into a political football
Asked about the claim attributed to sources in the Delhi police’s Special Cell, the Union home secretary said, “It is true that IB and Delhi police were running an operation where he (Naqi) was the informer. But the fact that he was an informer in a particular operation does not preclude the fact that he could have been or was involved in the bomb blast.”
Singh’s remarks came after the squabbling between the Special Cell and the Maharashtra ATS over Naqi’s alleged complicity in 13/7, with the former accusing the ATS of not only arresting an informer but also damaging the operation to nab Yasin Bhatkal. Sources in IB rebutted the perception that they have expressed doubts over ATS’s investigations leading to the arrests of Naqi and Nadeem Akhtar, who hailed from the same village.
Stung by the accusation, ATS sources hit back on Tuesday, daring their Delhi counterparts to follow through on their assertion about Naqi’s innocence by moving a court in Mumbai. The public bloodletting has brought out in stark relief the continuing lack of coordination among different agencies despite the growing evidence that it is such gaps and distrust that have helped terrorist attacks.
Singh avoided a direct reply to the question of whether the two agencies were defying the Centre’s insistence to break down the silos. However, he agreed that the incident validated the need to set up the National Counter Terrorism Centre (NCTC). He said that the home ministry was keen that the much-delayed agency start functioning. He also said that a meeting of the director generals of police will be called to eliminate such mix-ups.
As the infighting raged, the investigation into a terror attack runs the risk of becoming a
political football. On Tuesday, both National Minorities Commission and CPM-affiliated Sahmat demanded a probe into Naqi’s arrest. ATS sources were even apprehensive that the controversy may have a bearing on their case in court.
At the heart of the squabbling is the Special Cell’s success in busting the Darbhanga module of the IM. The breakthrough in Darbhanga set the Special Cell both on the path to Naqi as well as a confrontation with the ATS.
One of the arrested Darbhanga members, Gayoor Jamali, told the Special Cell that he had introduced Bhatkal to Naqi, who is from the same district in Bihar. Naqi, who has a business in Mumbai, admitted to have helped Bhatkal rent a house in Byculla where two suspected 13/7 bombers stayed.
Naqi told his Delhi police handlers that he did not know about the intention or antecedents of Bhatkal. He led the Delhi police to the landlady in Byculla who on the basis of a photograph, confirmed that the man who stayed in her house was indeed Bhatkal.
It is not clear whether Delhi police fully believed Naqi’s claim of innocence, but they did not arrest him because of their belief that he would lead them to Bhatkal. A Special Cell team camped in Mumbai for almost a month. Curiously, they kept the operation a secret from the ATS even when they were operating on its home turf.
The plan was disrupted when the ATS, who also had Naqi in their crosshairs by then, picked him up for its investigation. The investigation convinced ATS chief Rakesh Maria that Naqi was not innocent. Sources in the home ministry confirmed that the ATS was unhappy with the Special Cell’s zeal in carrying out an autonomous operation in Mumbai, but seemed to agree that the peeve could not have led Maria to arrest Naqi if he did not feel convinced.
The ATS said that Naqi had taken the Delhi police for a ride. Home ministry sources said it was naive of the Special Cell to think the ATS wouldn’t find out about the operation.
Bhatkal false alarm?
After asking the public to come forward with information, ATS chief Rakesh Maria said a woman called up the agency on Tuesday to say she saw someone resembling Yasin Bhatkal travelling in a Central Railway train at around 6 pm on Monday. She said the man resembled photos of Bhatkal released by the ATS and published in the media. Maria said that after investigations turned up nothing, the woman was called to the ATS office and shown Bhatkal’s picture on Tuesday. She then said the man she saw looked about 50 to 60% like the man in the photograph. Police said they are following all leads. TNN
The Times of India, January 25, 2012
0 comments:
Post a Comment