JOIN USYasin Bhatkal, the top Indian Mujahideen operative, never faced any financial crunch for his activities as his Pakistani handler, a Lieutenant Colonel in the spy agency ISI, used to provide him money whenever he was in need, sources said on Saturday.
The ISI officer gave him instructions regularly and took feedback from him, they said as the National Investigation Agency (NIA) and intelligence agencies questioned him for the third day after his arrest on the Indo-Nepal border on Thursday early morning.
He used to get money from his Pakistani handler through hawala operators. Yasin was encouraged by the ISI officer to recruit more Indian youth in Indian Mujahideen, sources said.
Investigators feel that Yasin is not parting with much information and is a hard nut to crack. Efforts to get details on the Indian Mujahideen network and members have not yielded satisfactory results so far.
They feel Yasin, a 30-year-old youth from Bhatkal village in Karnataka, is trying hard to conceal details of IM operatives in India and Nepal. He is yet to open up fully over the question of the hideouts used by the terror outfit.
Investigators believe that the laptop and mobile phone they seized from Yasin could be a treasure trove and have sent them for forensic examination. A forged driving licence and a voter ID were also recovered from him.
Yasin is alleged to be the top operative of the Indian Mujahideen in the country after other leaders of the terror outfit left India following a crackdown. Investigators said Yasin was the main brain behind the recruitment drive in the past few years.
Sources said he tried recruiting operatives for his terror outfit even when he stayed in Nepal and was also tried indoctrinating youth in border villages in Bihar.
Meanwhile, Bihar police’s alleged attempt to pack Yasin off to Delhi without interrogation has spiralled into a controversy with senior BJP leader Arun Jaitley accusing the state’s JD(U) government of playing votebank politics on terrorism.
The comments of Samajwadi Party leader Kamal Farooqi questioning whether Yasin was arrested because he was a Muslim also created ripples. The BJP asked Samajwadi Party to expel him from the party.
The SP has distanced itself from Farooqi’s statement. "Farooqui's statement is not that of the party's. It could be his personal views," senior SP leader Ram Gopal Yadav said.