Why bomb expert turned planter

Investigative agencies now believe that terror organisations such as Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) and Indian Mujahideen (IM) are facing difficulties in recruiting foot soldiers. That Yasin Bhatkal -- a core team member of IM -- himself planted the bomb at German Bakery has been confirmed by another arrested suspect Himayat Baig from the city.u00a0


Waning support? IM member Yasin Bhatkal, a bomb expert, is said to have planted the bomb at German bakery. File pic

Investigative agencies were earlier flummoxed with their discovery when they came to learn that Yasin Bhatkal planted the bomb inside the German bakery. Yasin, whose name earlier, cropped up in many blasts cases since 2006 as a bomb expert and supplier of explosives, actually walked down the streets and risked his life to plant a bomb in German bakery.

A senior officer of the state Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) said: "One possibility could be that they could have lost support and with no sufficient foot soldiers available, Yasin himself planted the bomb inside the bakery."
To support his claims, the ATS officer said: "If we consider the blasts in the country from 7/11 in Mumbai to the Delhi blasts in 2008 that were linked to IM, all were serial blasts barring the one in German bakery.

So there is room to believe that IM may be facing a crunch of foot soldiers." "About 22 of its members were arrested for their involvement in the 2006 serial train blasts in Mumbai. This could be the reason for shortage," another officer said.Yasin's involvement in the earlier blasts surfaced at the time of investigating the 7/11 serial blasts case.

Riyaz Bhatkal, a native of Bhatkal in Karnataka, has been absconding since 2006. Yasin hails from the same village as Riyaz that is from Bhatkal in southern Karnataka. Yasin was further named by city resident Mohammed Akbar Ismail Chaudhary, a key accused in the August 2007 Hyderabad twin blasts. The ATS suspect that Akbar's brother Mohsin is involved in the execution of the Pune blast.

According to the information provided to the police, Yasin till now supplied explosives, and was responsible for conducting training sessions in bomb-making and even assembled bombs.
His name figured as one who supplied ammonium nitrate used in the September 2008 Delhi blasts.