Operatives of banned terror outfit Indian Mujahideen, including its co-founders Yasin and Riyaz Bhatkal, were planning to attack Surat with nuclear warheads which they tried to procure from Pakistan, NIA has said.
In its 277-page charge sheet filed in a court here, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) said that after Yasin and other IM men failed to carry out a series of bomb blasts in July 2008 in Surat and Ahmedabad, they started planning to procure nuclear warheads from Pakistan to nuke Surat.
"The operatives also discussed about targeting Surat, where they had failed to inflict any damage during the attempt in 2008, and now wanted to nuke the city with nuclear warheads if they could be procured from Pakistan," the NIA said.
Referring to the internet chats between the two top IM operatives on June 1 last year, the probe agency said Yasin had asked Riyaz to procure nuclear bomb in Pakistan.
"Yasin then asked Riyaz whether he had found nuclear bomb in Pakistan to which Riyaz denied and also said that if looked for properly, then everything was available in Pakistan. Yasin told him that Surat should be attacked with nuclear bombs. Yasin then requested Riyaz to look for nuclear bomb to attack Surat," it said.
NIA further said "Riyaz told Yasin that Muslims will also die in such attack, to which Yasin said that they will place posters in mosques for every Muslim resident to quietly evacuate from the town. This clearly established the devious intentions of the accused Yasin to wage war against India."
NIA also said that on the intervening night of July 24-25, 2008, Yasin and other members of IM had planted various Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) at different crowded places in Surat whereas some other operatives of the terror outfit had planted 32 IEDs in Ahmedabad.
"However, none of the IEDs of Surat exploded and the accused got depressed and quietly went to bed," it said.
