Bihar director-general of police Abhyanand said the state police had “a major role” in the arrest of Yasin Bhatkal and his close aide Asadulla Akhtar. A Bihar police team also interrogated Bhatkal first after his arrest, the DGP said.
Bhatkal reportedly confirmed to interrogators that his two key Indian Mujahideen compatriots, Riyaz Bhatkal and Iqbal Bhatkal, were now hiding in Pakistan, sources said.
NIA sleuths presented Bhatkal and Akhtar in the court of chief judicial magistrate S.C. Mishra in Motihari late on Thursday afternoon after hours of interrogation. The court granted the NIA three days’ transit remand for the two top IM operatives. At the court, a remorseless Bhatkal confirmed his own identity and nonchalantly said: “These things (terror blasts) happen. There is nothing new.”
The duo is being brought to Patna amid high security and secrecy by a team of NIA and Bihar police officials, with a special BSF aircraft ready to take the duo to Delhi for sustained, detailed interrogation on several terror blasts, sources said.