Yasin is no stranger to the national capital, as he had lived with his wife in Delhi where he had also set up a small ordnance and weapons factory in a small room in Meer Vihar in Outer Delhi’s Nangloi area. The security agencies had raided the hideout in 2011.
During interrogation by sleuths of central agencies, it is revealed that Yasin, who is a tech savvy terror operator, has used various VoIP platforms for his communication with his Pakistani handlers, knowing fully well that VoIP is difficult for the intelligence agencies to track and crack down.
The IM leaders had slipped under the radar of intelligence agencies after 2008 Batla House encounter leaving almost no trial of their vast communication network across the country.
After laying their hands on Yasin’s laptop and mobile phone, the agencies expect to gather vital information about the communication networks used by the Bhatkals to liaison with terror operatives in Pakistan and other countries. The cellphone recovered from Yasin will provide the critical information on the database of numbers he was using, even though he did not use his own mobile to make calls, the sources said. The numbers stored in the cellphone can actually lay bare the entire web of connectivity that IM operatives have used both in India and abroad.
The VoIP platforms that Yasin was using can yield vital information on the communication that was happening between him, his Pakistani handlers and the Bhatkal brothers, a top NIA official said.
If it is the communication trial which is now expected to expose the IM network, incidentally, it was the money trail which led the Intelligence Bureau to Yasin’s hideout in Pokhara in Nepal early this month giving out his exact location to the sleuths who then zeroed in on the most wanted terrorist with the help of the Nepal police. Sources disclosed that Bhatkal was sending `1 lakh, purportedly as an “eidi’’ gift to his wife and atleast two banking channels were used.