Trial and Terror

Families of terror suspects and accused battle stigma, stress and scrutiny as they wait for their loved ones’ return.

- Namrata Biji Ahuja

It is early evening in Bhatkal, a quiet coast-al town in Karnataka. But the placidity is superficial; the ripples run deep here. Bhatkal rings a familiar note for those who have followed the birth of homegrown terror in India. It is home to Riyaz Bhatkal, Iqbal Shahbandri and Yasin Bhatkal, cofounders of the Indian Mujahideen, which has allegedly carried out a series of terror attacks in the country in the last decade. On December 19, Bhatkal was in news again after a special court of the National Investigation Agency (NIA) pronounced death sentence on Yasin Bhatkal alias Mohammed Ahmed Siddibapa and four others for carrying out twin explosions in Hyderabad’s Dilsukhnagar area on February 21, 2013. Eighteen people were killed and 131 people injured in the attack.

Yasin was a key link in the transition of the Pakistan-sponsored homegrown terror outfit IM to the global Islamic State. Arrested in 2013, Yasin told interrogators that some of the IM members—who had fled with him to Pakistan in 2008 after the Batla house encounter—had contacted Al Qaeda-Taliban leadership directly as they were unhappy with the control being exerted by Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence. A few of them then formed Ansal ul Tawhid (AuT) to fight alongside the Taliban against the NATO forces. But as the IS brand grew bigger, they shifted base to Syria. This gave birth to the IS-India chapter, headed by Sultan and ShafiArmar, brothers from Bhatkal, who left for Syria in 2014.