According to ATS officers, Yasin played a pivotal role in the Pune German Bakery blasts by procuring the raw materials and assembling the explosives and planting the bomb. The sole accused, Himayat Baig, was sentenced to death by the Shivajinagar sessions court in Pune for his role in the blasts, which killed 17 persons. Bhatkal was also captured in the CCTV footage in the popular café.
However, he was not directly involved with the low intensity serial blasts in Pune in August last year. “He only played a supervisory role and monitored the planning. We, however, strongly suspect his role in the Bodh Gaya blasts as the types of explosives had his imprint and were similar to the German Bakery bombing,” the source added.
Mohammed Siddhibappa alias Yasin Bhatkal, according to sources from the Pune ATS, started working under Riyaz and Iqbal Bhatkal — who are brothers — for the Indian Mujahideen handling the outfit’s technical aspect. The police said Yasin was instrumental in sending out terror emails and identifying potential recruits with a sound technical background.
“He was not the IM founder as is widely believed and only assumed the group’s leadership after Riyaz and Iqbal left the country, suspectedly fleeing to Pakistan or Dubai. His role was predominantly handling the technical arena when he ventured into bomb-making,” said a source from ATS, Pune.
Yasin’s greatest success, according to officers, was the recruitment of qualified software engineer Mansoor Peerbhoy, a part of the Pune module, which was busted by the Mumbai crime branch in 2008. “Peerbhoy had joined an Arabic learning class in Pune and was identified by IM spotter Asif Bashir Shaikh who tried to indoctrinate him, but in vain. He then met Yasin in 2006 who also failed despite having shown him CDs of atrocities against Muslims across the world. Peerbhoy finally got radicalised when he was enraged after seeing the bloodshed at the sight of the Hyderabad blasts when he was taken to the spot by Riyaz himself,” added the ATS source.