Delhi Police today virtually broke the back of terror outfit Indian Mujahideen with the arrest of its chief of Indian Operations Tehsin Akhtar alias Monu, who was wanted in a number of bombings in the country, from near Kakarvitta Indo-Nepal border in Darjeeling district of West Bengal.
"23-year-old Monu, a resident of Darbhanga in Bihar, was acting as the chief of IM's India operations after the arrest of Ahmad Siddhibappa Zarar alias Yasin Bhatkal. He was Bhatkal's key aide and a protege and is wanted for a series of terrorist strikes spread over various states", Special Commissioner (Special Cell) S N Shrivastava told reporters here.
"He was the key link between IM and other splinter terror outfits which have emerged from the umbrella of Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI)," he said.
He was arrested by a team of Special Cell of Delhi Police from Pani Tanki police station area in Kakarvitta of Darjeeling district at around 10:30 AM here this morning when he was entering India from Nepal, he said.
"Monu is also close to Riyaz and Iqbal Bhatkal, the IM bosses currently based in Pakistan and SIMI's 'Black Beauty' module of Ranchi.
"The importance of his arrest can be gauged by the fact that he was instrumental in setting up some IM modules. He was their prime motivator and ideologue," said Shrivastava.
His arrest came days after Special Cell nabbed another top IM operative Zia Ur Rehman alias Waqas from Ajmer in Rajasthan along with three of his associates.
"We worked on the lead we got from their interrogation and zeroed in on Monu," said Shrivastava.
Sources said that soon after he came to know of the arrest of Waqas and company, he fled from his hideout from Nepal and was trying to slip to Bangladesh when he was nabbed.
He is being brought to Delhi by a special plane from the nearest aerodrome, police said.
Police said that more arrests are expected in the next couple of days.
"Known by several names like Monu alias Sahil alias Sameer alias Hassan, he first came in contact with IM in 2010 and became a protege of Yasin Bhatkal. He was introduced to Bhatkal and Kamal Akhtar by Gayur Ahmad Jamali, who was arrested by Special Cell in 2011. He got training from Bhatkal, learned to make IEDs," said Shrivastava.
With the arrest of Tehseen, almost the entire top leadership of Indian Mujahideen has been nabbed by the police.
Indian Mujahideen co-founder Ahmad Siddhibappa Zarar alias Yasin Bhatkal, Tehseen Akhtar alias Monu, Asadullah Akhtar alias Haddi and Zia Ur Rehman alias Waqas were the brains behind almost every IM attack on Indian soil.
