Yasin Bhatkal used hawala network to fund Hyderabad blasts: NIA

HYDERABAD: National Investigation Agency (NIA) sleuths on Monday told a local court here that Indian Mujahideen (IM) co-founder Yasin Bhatkal had funded the Dilsukhnagar twin blasts through hawala network. He was formally arrested for his role in hatching the conspiracy to carry out the blasts. After hearing arguments from both parties, the court granted NIA custody of Yasin Bhatkal till October 4.
NIA sleuths informed the Ist additional metropolitan session judge that Dilsukhnagar twin blasts were organized through hawala funding and hence a thorough probe was needed to unearth the hawala network of the banned outfit, whose tentacles are spread across the country.
The involvement of hawala funding was mentioned by the NIA counsel while seeking the 15-day custody of Yasin Bhatkal. The court, however, granted the NIA custody of Yasin Bhatkal from September 24 till October 8.
"During the interrogation in RC 06/2012/ NIA/ DIL, Tabreez has revealed his involvement along with Waqas in causing explosions at Hyderabad on instruction of Riyaz Bhatkal. Tabreez further confessed that Riyaz had supplied explosive materials through unknown persons in the third week of January 2013. It had involvement of Yasin Bhatkal in the whole conspiracy,'' NIA officials said seeking the custody of Yasin Bhatkal. The Dilsukhnagar twin blasts took place on February 21, killing 17 people and injuring over 100.
NIA officials said that they need to identify the persons involved in the hawala network and they would by taking Yasin Bhatkal to various places in the country. Similarly, there was a need to know the source of ammunition material used in the twin blasts.
Since the arrest of Yasin Bhatkal, the security agencies had found over 2,000 internet chat messages, communication with various persons and the NIA officials said they need to question Yasin Bhatkal to know more information based on the messages. "The IM members are reportedly planning to organise more terror strikes in the country and we need to extract this information from Yasin Bhatkal,'' NIA officials said.
The NIA counsel informed the court that Yasin was wanted in several blast cases, including the German bakery blast case, Zaveri Bazar blast case, while in the Bangalore blast he played an important role. Yasin Bhatkal has been shown as being part of the team hatching the conspiracy to execute the Dilsukhnagar twin blasts.
The defence counsel, in their argument, pleaded against police custody. However, the judge granted the NIA 15-day custody.