Mumbai: 

MUCH TO SAY: Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime) Rakesh Maria at the press conference yesterday.PIC/NARENDRA DANGIYA

The mystery surrounding the Indian Mujahideen was yesterday laid bare after Crime Branch officials unearthed the identity of Roshan Khan aka Riyaz Bhatkal, the man responsible for dozens of blasts across the country. Investigations have indicated that Bhatkal, one of the founding members of Indian Mujahideen, was the planner in almost all the recent blasts. Khan, who is called Bhatkal as he hails from that village in Karnataka, used to operate from a residential colony near Kurla bus depot, when he headed a gang called Aryan some years ago.

According to Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime) Rakesh Maria, Bhatkal used to head Aryan, whose members were involved in dozens of extortion cases around Kurla in 2000. Even as five members of IM were arrested yesterday, Bhatkal is still absconding. "But we are very close to arresting him," said Maria.

Before 9/11

Before Bhatkal took to terrorist activities in the aftermath of 9/11, his gang used to operate in north Mumbai. Bhatkal, then a small-time goon, was on the hit list of encounter specialists. He then fled Mumbai and resurfaced after establishing links with terror groups in Pakistan and Bangladesh, confirmed Maria.

After the 2002 Godhra carnage, Bhatkal was responsible for sending hundreds of youth to training camps in Pakistan on the behest of Laskhar-e-Taiba and HUJI.

Car dealers

The Crime Branch's latest operation kicked off after officers tracked a Navi Mumbai car dealer, who had sold one of the four Maruti Omnis used in the Ahmedabad blasts. This led to another car dealer in Surat. The police also picked up dozens of car dealers from places like Malegaon, Surat, Rajkot, Baroda, Azamgarh and Bhatkal in North Karnataka. The needle of suspicion pointed to Afzal Usmani, as the car dealers during interrogation mentioned his name. Usmani alias Dedfutia was picked up from Shivaji Nagar near Chembur yesterday.

Others arrested

Checking the telephone records, the police stumbled upon programme engineer Mohammed Sadiq Shaikh (38), a resident of Bhiwandi in Thane district. This was followed by the arrest of Mohammed Arif Sheikh, an electrician from Mumbra.

The investigating team soon rounded up software engineer Sheikh Mohammed Ansar from Cheetah Camp near Trombay and Sheikh Mohammed Ansar, a scrap dealer from Mumbra. All the five suspects have links with Azamgarh.

The police during interrogations learnt that the module was assigned the task of making bombs and supplying them to other cells across the country. Most of the raw material and bombs were smuggled from Bhatkal in Karnataka.

Police Commissioner Hasan Gafoor said Indian Mujahideen's links with Pakistan have been confirmed with the arrest of the five suspects.

Recovered material from 5 arrested

Gelatin: 10 kg, detonators: 15, ball bearings: 8 kg, electrical circuits: 4, sub-machine guns: 1, assorted bullets: 50