ATS gets 40 calls in week to inform about IM operatives

Maharashtra ATS, which had announced Rs 10 lakh reward each on Indian Mujahideen chief Yasin Bhatkal and his three aides allegedly involved in terror cases, received as many as 40 phone calls in a week's time to provide them clues, but yielded no results so far.

According to police, the callers claimed that they had spotted persons resembling the wanted accused either in a public transport bus or at places like bus stops and railway stations.

However, as of now nothing concrete has emerged during the verification by the ATS men.

Besides these 40 telephone calls, about 60 missed calls were received at the numbers provided by the ATS as the callers wanted to verify if they were correct, police said.

"When we called them back after the missed calls, the callers said they wanted to verify whether the numbers were correct so that they could make calls if they spot the terrorists," said a police officer.

One of the callers asked the ATS to mail him the photographs of the wanted accused as the pictures on the posters were not clear, police added.

Another person who had called from Pune said he had spotted a person resembling one of the wanted accused Asadullah Akhtar Javed Akhtar a few days ago following which an ATS team rushed to him and took down the details.

A phone call was received from Nagpur but in vain, police said, adding that whenever they got a phone call, they did not take them lightly and verified the details.

On February 12, the ATS had announced a cash reward of Rs 10 lakh each to any person providing information leading to the arrest of Yasin Bhatkal (30), Tahaseen Akhtar Wasim Aktar Shaikh (23), Asadulla Akhtar Javed Akhtar (26) and Waqas alias Ahmed (26).

The ATS had requested the public to inform the police if they spot the four wanted accused, on the two dedicated mobile numbers 09619122222, 08652012345 and landline number 022-23791619. Citizens were also asked to email them at [e-mail] [e-mail].

All the four wanted accused were allegedly involved in three coordinated bomb explosions at different locations in the peak evening hours in Mumbai on July 13, 2011.

The blasts had occurred at Opera House, Zaveri Bazaar, and Dadar West, leaving 27 dead and 130 injured, the ATS said. Five accused had been arrested in connection with the blasts and a 4000-page charge sheet was filed in May last year in a special MCOCA court.

Except Tahaseen, who planted a bomb in the Dadar blast, the rest three were also involved in the four co-ordinated low-intensity explosions, which struck the busy arterial road in the heart of Pune city on August 1, 2012. Eight accused had been arrested in this connection. Yasin and Asadulla were also involved in bomb blasts which took place in the past one decade in Ahmedabad, Surat, Bangalore, Delhi and Hyderabad, the ATS said.