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India arrests suspected terrorist

August 29, 2013

Indian police have arrested one of the suspected co-founders of the militant group the Indian Mujahideen. The top militant has allegedly been involved in several bombings that killed hundreds of people.

https://p.dw.com/p/19YHT
A reproduction of handout pictures released by the city police shows Indian Mujahideen operative and alleged mastermind of the July 2011 Mumbai serial blasts, Yashin Bhatkal, at a press conference in Mumbai on January 23, 2012. Indian police on Monday claimed to have made a breakthrough in investigations by arresting two people, in the Mumbai city blasts case in July last year, which claimed 27 lives. The triple bomb blasts rocked Mumbai's packed gold and jewellery quarter, the Opera House, a diamond trading hub and the south central residential and commercial district of Dadar.. AFP PHOTO/Indranil MUKHERJEE (Photo credit should read INDRANIL MUKHERJEE/AFP/Getty Images)
Image: Indranil Mukherjee/AFP/Getty Images

India's home minister, Sushilkumar Shinde said that Yasin Bhatkal was arrested Wednesday night in the eastern state of Bihar near India's border with Nepal.

"He is now in the custody of Bihar Police and interrogation is on," Shinde told reporters at a press conference in the capital, New Delhi, on Thursday.

Authorities say Bhatkal, who was one of the country's most wanted fugitives, is one of the leaders of the Indian Mujahideen, a militant group that has been linked to the Pakistan-based Islamist rebel group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT)

The banned Indian Mujahideen is thought to be behind several bombings in India since 2005, which killed hundreds of people.

Earlier this month Indian security forces arrested another alleged top militant, Abdul Karim Tunda, who is thought to be a senior member of the LeT.

Tunda is accused of plotting serial blasts in Mumbai in 1993 in which 250 people died, as well as dozens of other deadly bomb attacks across the country.

hc/pfd (AFP, AP, dpa)