‘IM trying to turn into Qaida-style network’

Bhatkal Says Group Split Into 2 Factions

New Delhi: The Indian Mujahideen (IM) is making efforts to evolve into a terror network similar to the al-Qaida by forging close ties with Pakistan-based Qaida affiliate Tehreek-e-Taliban-Pakistan, arrested IM leader Yasin Bhatkal reportedly told intelligence agencies. 
    During his interrogation by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) and various state agencies recently, Bhatkal claimed that the terror outfit’s ultimate goal is to introduce sharia in India, like the jihadis in Afghanistan and Somalia. In both countries, the Islamic terror networks are believed to be affilated to al-Qaida. 
    Describing the terror group’s ties with Pakistan, the IM leader reportedly claimed that the outfit is markedly different from the LeT, which functions as a‘puppet’ of Pakistan’s intelligence agency ISI. Bhatkal said that the IM had a tactical understanding with the ISI under which the group received logistical support from the intelligence agency. 
    Bhatkal’s interrogation also revealed that more than half-a-dozen IM recruits from north India have been killed in Afghanistan fighting alongside the Taliban. 
    Besides, the arrested terrorist also gave details of a factional fight involving the two top IM leaders in recent years. While one of them has been accused of corruption, another has been branded as non-cooperative towards comrades. 
    Bhatkal said that the organization split into two camps — the Azamgarh and Bhatkal factions — following the Batla House encounter in 2008. 
    “After the Batla House encounter, most of the IM operatives were forced to flee the country and were supposed to take refuge in Nepal. At the time, the senior-most IM leader and one of the group’s co-founders, Amir Reza Khan, was responsible for providing logistical support to IM operatives in Nepal, which, Bhatkal has alleged, he failed to do,” an investigator said.