The Elusive Terror Mastermind of India’s Mujahideen: A Profile of Ahmed Siddibaba a.k.a Yasin Bhatkal
Ahmed Siddibaba, also known as Yasin Bhatkal, notorious for his various aliases such as ‘Saharukh Khan’, ‘Sivanand’, and ‘Dr. Imran’, is believed to be in charge of the IM terror group since the top leaders of the homegrown terror group have fled to Pakistan and to the Gulf region following countrywide crackdowns. For the first time, Yasin, the IM’s explosive expert, who facilitated terror acts but typically remained in the background, stepped into the limelight during investigations into a series of blasts that hit major urban centers such as Delhi, Bangalore, and Ahmadabad in 2008. He was identified by two arrested IM operatives, Mohammed Saif and Akbar Ismail Chaudhary, who revealed Yasin’s bomb-making expertise to their interrogators as well as his alliance with two fugitive IM founders.