Is Jaish-ul-Hind IM's revived, new face? NIA, police expand radar

The emergence of a new terror outfit JaishulHind JuH and its links with jailed Indian Mujahideen IM operative Tehseen Akhtar have left the countrys intelligence agencies the NIA and police forces of Mumbai and Delhi working on the same line of investigationTwo major questions are yet to be answered whether the IM has come up with a new identity as the JuH or is IMs underground network is being revived to work with JuHThe National Investigation Agency NIA has begun a panIndia operation to dig out answers to these questions Meanwhile Delhi Polices Special Cell and Mumbais AntiTerrorist Squad ATS have engaged more than two dozen groups of officials to find out links between the two recent terror incidents reported from Mumbai and Delhi within a span of two months These incidences gave birth to littleknown JuH and raised doubts about whether IM was trying to revive itselfOf the two terror cases the recent one was reported from Mumbai in which an SUV laden with 20 gelatin sticks was recovered outside industrialist Mukesh Ambanis Antilia residence on February 25 and the other in which a minor blast took place in a car near the Israel embassy in Delhi on January 29 In a message JuH claimed responsibility for the move but in another letter the group denied its roleA group of investigators said JuH was created inside Tihar Jail No 8 which houses prisoners including those from IM and AlQaeda who have been sentenced for cases of terror However another group of investigators said JuH might have been created outside but IM operatives who went underground are now being used to support the groupIn a new development to the Antilia bomb scare and the blast outside Israeli Embassy cases the Special Cell cops of the Delhi Police are set to question IM terrorist Tehseen Akhtar alias Monu in Tihar Jail after two mobile phones were recovered from his barrackThe investigation so far has revealed that a mobile handset has been seized from Akhtars barrack in jail No 8 which was allegedly used to send Telegram messages claiming responsibility for parking an SUV with 20 gelatin sticks outside Ambanis south Mumbai residenceThe development has come after Tihar Jail authorities had found two mobile phones one of the Oppo company and another of Vivo Both the phones have been handed over to the Delhi Police Special CellAs the investigating agencies have little option to track the main link the Special Cell of Delhi Police has been assigned to get details from IM operative and IED expert Aktar Techsavvy Akhtar is known for his alleged involvement in a series of blasts in the country since 2010Preliminary investigations suggest that the Telegram Channel was being operated by not more than a dozen people It is a matter of investigation whether these terrorists used this phone to claim responsibility for terror acts or threats including for placing an explosivesladen SUV near Ambanis residence and blast outside Israeli embassy in DelhiAkhtar was convicted in 2016 for his alleged role in the 2013 Hyderabad twin bombings that killed at least 13 people and injured over 100 others In March 2014 Akhtar then 24yearold was arrested from Naxalbari in Darjeeling district of West Bengal by the Special Cell of Delhi PoliceThe announcement of his arrest had come just three days after the arrest of top IM operative and Pakistani national ZiaurRehman alias Waqas from Rajasthan and security agencies believed this to be a major setback for the outfitAkhtar according to the police became the operational chief of Indian Mujahideen after the arrest of its cofounder Mohammad Zarar Siddibappa alias Yasin Bhatkal from IndiaNepal border in August 2013Bhatkal is said to have informed the investigators at the time of his arrest on August 29 2013 that Akhtar is the India head of IM and deals directly with Karachibased operative Riyaz Bhatkal He was said to have been managing modules across India The NIA had subsequently announced a reward of Rs 10 lakh on AkhtarThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever