Alleged terror operative Yasin Bhatkal’s aide Asadullah Akhtar, arrested along with the former a few days ago, was brought here by National Investigation Agency (NIA) sleuths on Saturday to disentangle the Dilsukhnagar terror attack.
Akhtar alias Haddi and Bhatkal are believed to be responsible for detonating two Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) at the crowded Dilsukhnagar on February 21 snuffing out 18 lives and injuring over 70 others.
Mystery shrouded the twin bombings, the first terror attack in the capital after Lumbini Park and Gokul Chat twin bombings more than six years ago, as no terror outfit claimed responsibility for it though investigators suspected the role of outlawed terror outfit Indian Mujahideen. The first clue came in the form of video footage recorded by a traffic surveillance camera and another CC camera of a cloth store close to the site of twin blasts. Two persons, who were seen in the footage using bicycles with the IEDs strapped to the rear carriers, emerged as prime suspects.
One of them matched Bhatkal’s features.
The arrest of Bhatkal and Akhtar by Bihar police and their reported confession that they had executed the Dilsukhnagar terror attack was the first breakthrough in the case. But crucial points like whether the duo took the help of locals, where the IEDs were made, their shelter in city and how they procured the bicycles remain a secret.
The terror suspect was brought to the NIA’s Begumpet office amidst tight security. With the help from the Counter Intelligence wing, investigators are trying to reconstruct the Dilsukhnagar blasts. The NIA and CI officials took Akhtar to Bahadurpura and some locations in Old City from where he and Bhatkal had operated to execute the explosions.
Sources said the investigators would take him to the twin blast sites in Dilsukhnagar late on Saturday night or in the early hours of Sunday to ascertain how they reached the point from their shelter and the routes they had travelled.
Reports that a Pakistan national, Waqas, had helped the duo in carrying out the blasts were being verified.
