The Hyderabad police claimed on Thursday that they found a striking resemblance between two men seen in CCTV footage recovered from the Dilsukhnagar blast site, and Yasin Bhatkal, the Indian Mujahideen terror suspect arrested at the Nepal border on Wednesday night, and another IM operative Asadullah Akhtar.
Hyderabad police commissioner Anurag Sharma said: “We have CCTV footage of the suspects who planted the bomb at Dilsukhnagar minutes before the blast. The two persons seen in the video footage almost look like Yasin and Akhtar. However, we need to thoroughly verify them.”
The commissioner said that officers from the Special Investigation Team (SIT) will go to Delhi or Bihar, to question Yasin Bhatkal.
“We will examine the role of Yasin and the other terror suspect Asadullah Akhtar in the February 21 Dilsukhnagar twin blasts and the 2007 blasts,” Mr Sharma said.
Senior police officials said that if it is necessary to bring Bhatkal to Hyderabad, a prisoner’s transit warrant can be issued for the purpose.
“The SIT of the city police is investigating the Gokul Chat and Lumbini Park blast cases. After the interrogation by the NIA, if his role in these blasts are confirmed, we will issue a PT warrant to bring him to Hyderabad,” said Hyderabad joint commissioner of police B. Malla Reddy.
The city police have been saying all this while that it was Yasin’s brother Riyaz Bhatkal who had planted the bomb at Gokul Chat.
In the two blasts that occurred in the busy market area of Dilsukhnagar on February 21evening, 18 people were killed and more than a hundred were injured. Forty-two people died in the blasts at Gokul Chat and Lumbini Park on August 25, 2007, and many were injured.
While the NIA has taken over the investigation of the Dilsukhnagar blast, the SIT of the city police is part of the investigation into the 2007 blasts.