Salman is believed to have told his interrogators of the IM gameplan of targeting these cities, saying that some key IM operatives were in Pakistan, where the outfit was getting the support of terrorist outfits based in that country. Top government sources said the Intelligence Bureau had shared details of Salman’s interrogation with the home ministry, after which the alert has been issued.
“Some IM operatives are in Pakistan and some in India. The Bhatkal brothers, Iqbal and Riyaz, are out and there are one or two others. We have a trace on them and we are trying to nab them wherever they are,” the sources said. Two more suspected Indian Mujahideen terrorists were arrested by the security forces on Monday. The suspected IM cadres, who are residents of Uttar Pradesh, were arrested along the Indo-Bangladesh border. “We suspect they were returning to India via Bangladesh after getting training in Pakistan,” a home ministry official said.
Salman, who is in the custody of the Delhi police, has told his interrogators that the IM cadres are going to Pakistan for training and are using Nepal and West Asian countries as a “base” before travelling back to India. Salman, suspected for his involvement in serial blasts in New Delhi, Ahmedabad, Varanasi and Gorakhpur, had left Pakistan a year ago. A Nepali passport and an international SIM card has been recovered from him.
The intelligence officials are piecing together information to establish the close links of the IM and the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Tayyaba — which also came to light during the interrogation of US-based LeT terror suspect David Coleman Headley by America’s FBI. Headley, who has been indicted by the FBI for his role in the 26/11 terror attack in Mumbai, had spoken about the “Karachi project” — under which Indian youths are being sent to Pakistan for terrorist training and then being pushed back to this country to carry out subversive activities.
“Salman has shared some information with us but since he left Pakistan more than a year ago, there is no tactical value to his present claims,” an intelligence official said. Home ministry officials, however, said they are not taking any chances and have alerted the state governments of Maharashtra, West Bengal and Karnataka to take all necessary security measures immediately.
Namrata Biji Ahuja