India seeks information from Pakistan on Riyaz Bhatkal death in shootout

Reports in the media about the killing of Riyaz Bhatkal, founder of Indian Mujahideen (IM), have prompted the Indian government to seek information from the Pakistan government about the veracity of the reports.

Riyaz Bhatkal, who was also known as Dilawar Iqbal and Sharukh Khan, is one of the most-wanted terrorists in India. He is wanted in connection with the bomb blasts in Jaipur, Bangalore, Ahmedabad, and New Delhi in 2008.

According to intelligence reports, he had slipped out of the country and was living in the high-security defence enclave area in Karachi.

According to information that the Indian authorities have passed on to their Pakistani counterparts for authentication, Riyaz got injured in a shootout in the Karina Market in the Gulshan Iqbal area on Wednesday, January 5 and subsequently died of his injuries on Thursday, January 6 at Dr Ziauddin Hospital.

A spokesperson of the Sindh police denied that anyone with the name of Riyaz Bhatkal was killed in a January 5 shootout in the vicinity of Gulshan Iqbal. On the other hand, on Tuesday, gangster Chhota Rajan told a private news channel that he had killed Bhatkal.

A source from the ministry of interior, Pakistan, denied Riyaz Bhatkal’s presence in Pakistan. The source said that Bhatkal’s name did not figure in the list of 20 most-wanted fugitives whose extradition Delhi had sought in 2008, following the attacks in Mumbai.

A source in the Mumbai Police said that it would take a lot of time to confirm if Bhatkal had been killed in Pakistan. According to intelligence agencies, they have not received any official confirmation. “In such cases, it does take time to get a confirmation,” an intelligence official said. “In the first place, Pakistan would never confirm that Bhatkal was hiding there.”

If Rajan or his men had indeed killed Bhatkal, said a security official, it would be a daring attempt for the self-proclaimed patriot don. “The Bhatkal brothers would have been given round-the-clock security cover by ISI officials,” the official said. “Breaching their security is not an easy job. It would take meticulous planning and precision to carry out such an attack.”w