Yasin Bhatkal was inspired by Osama Bin Laden, says NIA

New Delhi, Feb 24: Indian Mujahideen co-founder Yasin Bhatkal was inspired by al-Qaeda chief Osama Bin Laden and used to motivate youngsters for sacrificing their lives in the name of 'jihad' through the videos of the slain terrorist, NIA has said in its charge sheet filed in a Delhi court.

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) said Bhatkal had downloaded from the internet a number of documents, including lectures, and videos of Osama and other prominent terrorists, and made young boys go through them. "He (Bhatkal) used to quote selected phrases from Islamic religious books in support of 'jihad'.

He had downloaded from Internet a number of documents which portrayed Jihad as an obligatory act of every Muslim. "He had also downloaded lectures of Muslim leaders and fighters like Osama Bin laden, Al Yazeed, Al Zarkawi, C Khateeb, Awlaqi from Internet. He made young Muslim boys watch these videos and read out these documents to them, so as to motivate them to sacrifice their lives in the name of jihad," NIA said, adding all these videos, documents, files have been saved by Bhatkal in his laptop.

These details were disclosed by NIA in its second charge sheet filed in a Delhi court against Mohd Ahmed Siddibapa alias Yasin Bhatkal, his aides Asadullah Akhtar, Manzer Imam and Ujjair Ahmed in connection with a case of alleged conspiracy to carry out terror acts in the country. The court today took cognizance of the charge sheet.

NIA also said that during investigation, it came out that banned Indian Mujahideen (IM) had initially started in the form of a small group known as 'Usaba' in Karnataka's Bhatkal area. "Usaba (congregation) is an Arabic word, which as per the accused means a group of men, which is more than 11 and less than 40.

"It was revealed during the investigation of accused Mohd Ahmed (Bhatkal) that the main object of Usaba is to collect the persons having same mentality and dedication to do something which in this case was to wage Jihad or holy war against the Hindus, other communities and the Indian state," the charge sheet said.

PTI