Mohammed Waqar Azhar, age 21. Mohammed Maharuf, age 23.
Brilliant students. Their careers could have gone any way. But look what they chose to be: terrorists. Last week the IM duo were arrested by the special cell of the Delhi Police, and their stories are
unravelling.
Both dreamed to be engineers. Waqar had scored 80 and 75 per cent in matriculation and higher secondary examinations. He wanted to get into IIT. To achieve that goal, he sat for the IIT-JEE exam in 2011 after a stint of coaching in Kota in 2010. But then, things happened and Waqar strayed on to another path, that of Jihad and extremism.
Mahruf was even better as he had scored 94 and 81 per cent in matric and high secondary respectively. But his life also ran on a parallel course. His father himself is an executive engineer in the Rajasthan
Electricity Board. The father hoped the son will follow in his footsteps, become an engineer in due course.
To fulfil that paternal dream, Mahruf got himself admitted to the Vivekanand Institute of Technology in Jaipur. Then, just like that, he started attending meetings at Noorani mosque, where the indoctrination began.
One day he travelled to Jodhpur with some people who frequented the Noorani mosque. There he met Shaquib Ansari, a protege of Tahsin Akhtar, present IM head who was arrested recently. There were more
meetings with Akhtar and very soon, he got a chance to speak with Riyaz Bhatkal, who told him to avenge the deaths of Muslims in the Gopalgarh riots.
Mahruf and Waqar were how-to-make-bombs lessons by IM's Pakistani IED expert Waqas, who's also been arrested by the special cell. After receiving "full training", when their financial and other needs were
taken care of by Shaquib, Afeef Bhatkal, who according to police sources, is IM's main recruiter in India though he operates from Karachi, formally welcomed them into the IM fold.
That was the beginning and the end for these two young men, who could have engineered an entirely differently life if they hadn't taken the wrong turn on to a wrong path at a wrong time.
"Interrogation of these operatives who were part of the Rajasthan module of Indian Mujahideen has revealed that its founders like Riyaz, Iqbal and Afif who reside in Pakistan currently are now looking to induct fresh "talent" into the terror outfit and for this they are targeting educated youth with technical background," said a senior police official associated with the investigation of the case.
"They think that those with technical knowledge will learn about things like IEDs, detonators, circuits etc easily and thus will be handy in carrying out terror strikes. Afif used to screen Facebook to spot people who showed interest or 'liked' content related to jehad. He then got in touch with them, further radicalized them and finally inducted them in IM fold," the official said.
Sources said that Afif, who must be around 35 years old, fled to Pakistan in 2009 and since then is living in Karachi with Riyaz and Iqbal. He is Riyaz Bhatkal's cousin.
Special Cell of Delhi Police had arrested Zia Ur Rehman alias Waqas on Saturday from Ajmer and then nabbed Mahruf and Waqar from Jaipur while Shaquib Ansari was arrested from Jodhpur at Waqas' instance on Sunday.
"Mahruf and Waqar were engineering students while Shaquib was a computer expert, they were recently 'recruited' by Afif in that order as they completely fulfilled the 'requirements'.
Once they were ready, Riyaz Bhatkal instructed Tehsin
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