Complacency proved Yasin Bhatkal's undoing

NEW DELHI: Yasin Bhatkal's complacency in staying a tad too long at his Nepal hideout and the risk he took by casting his recruitment net far and wide may have proved his undoing. Using their good old human informer network, Indian intelligence operatives worked closely with the Nepalese agencies to closely track Yasin's location and movements over the last five-six months.

The Indian Mujahideen (IM) operations' mastermind, who had successfully dodged surveillance by shunning conventional communication methods and not remaining at a single location for long, was mostly holed up at his Pokhara hideout over the last six months. He took care to mask his real identity by securing a driving licence (/DL) and voter identity card under a forged name and used the cover of a Unani medicine practitioner not to arouse suspicion. The NIA has seized his fake D/L and voter ID, apart from laptops and mobiles used by him and aide Asadullah Akhtar alias Haddi. Yasin's passport, however, has not been traced.

According to a senior home ministry official, Yasin did step out of his Nepal base occasionally, sometimes for a night and, at other times, for four-five days. Many of these outings were under disguise. Haddi was living with Yasin, when the agencies closed in on the duo.

Agencies were on Yasin's trail since 2008, scanning his calls though he sparingly used mobiles and preferred to communicate through encrypted instant messaging services like Nimbuzz and Yahoo! Around two-three months ago, the agencies had secured the cooperation of Dutch authorities to crack Yasin's messages on Nimbuzz, headquartered in the Netherlands. The agencies also watched out for remittances and letters sent by him to his family here.

Ultimately, however, it was with the help of human intelligence — possibly an informer who got associated with Yasin as he went about expanding the IM network from Darbhanga to Delhi — that the agencies caught up with the terror mastermind. Experts indicated that it may have been foolhardy for him to be directly involved in recruitment since he was personally taking part in execution of terror strikes. "The many people he may have interacted during recruitment possibly blew his cover," an official said.