Hyderabad blasts: How terror team worked - Yasin and Riyaz plotted, Waqas made bombs, Aijaz forged IDs

Hyderabad blast

Riyaz Bhatkal and Yasin Bhatkal were the chief architects of the 2013 Dilsukhnagar twin bomb blasts conspiracy, while Waqas, a Pakistani national, constructed the improvised explosive devices, and Aijaz Sheikh provided fake identification documents that helped the terror operatives evade detection. Riyaz Bhatkal, a key figure in the Indian Mujahideen network, was never caught.

The Telangana High Court on April 8, 2025, upheld the death sentences of five individuals convicted in the 2013 blasts that claimed 18 lives and left dozens injured. The court dismissed the criminal appeal filed by the convicts, Yasin Bhatkal, Waqas, Aijaz Sheikh, Asadullah Akhtar, and Tahseen Akhtar.

Following his arrest, Zia-Ur-Rehman alias Waqas, a native of Mustafabad in Pakistan's Punjab province, confessed to the National Investigation Agency (NIA) that he, along with Asadullah and Tahseen, was directly involved in planting the IEDs. At the time, Waqas was just 24 years old.

He learnt to make bombs in North Waziristan where he was trained by the Taliban for 25 days under Nasar Bhai alias Nasarulla. “He later successfully tested his bombs at isolated locations near Deshmukh village of Hyderabad along with Asadullah and Tahseen.”

"Waqas soldered various components on the motherboard and completed the timer circuitry. After completing the process of assembling a bomb, he placed a bulb in place of the explosive. The bulb glowed, indicating that the circuit required for a bomb to explode was completed," according to Waqas' disclosure-cum-IED demonstration memo before the NIA.

To execute the twin blasts, Waqas assembled two IEDs at a rented house in Deshmukhi village, Abdullapurmet. He used 300 tubes of ammonium nitrate fuel oil (ANFO) and 50 detonators, which were sent by Riyaz Bhatkal via an unidentified courier to Mangaluru in January 2013.

On February 21, he planted one of the devices at a bus stop and then boarded a private travel bus to Bengaluru with Asadullah. Waqas was eventually arrested by the Delhi Police Special Cell in Rajasthan on March 22, 2014.

Another accused, Aijaz Sheikh, hailing from Gorpade Peth in Pune, was employed at a BPO in the city before pursuing a five-month course in hardware, networking, and Linux at an institute in Banjara Hills, Hyderabad. He was apprehended by the Delhi Special Cell from Uttar Pradesh in September 2014.

In his statement to the NIA, Aijaz revealed that he had provided fake identification documents under the direction of his brother-in-law Mohsin Chaudhary and Riyaz Bhatkal.

"I used to scan voter IDs, driving licences, and other documents and prepare fake documents for IM operatives. I was using TrueCrypt and AxCrypt encryption software to encrypt the fake document files in my laptop," he said in his disclosure statement.

The terror team relied on forged identities to book travel tickets, rent accommodations, and withdraw funds. For example, Aijaz created a fake ID under the name Nabeel Ali Ajmed, Waqas’ childhood friend from Pakistan, which Waqas used to collect money from a Western Union Money Transfer outlet in Mangaluru on five occasions, both before and after the blasts, as noted in the court order.

The NIA also found several fake documents, including voter ID cards bearing Tahseen’s photo but issued under the names Girish Chand Joshi (Dehradun) and Armaan (Doranda, Ranchi). Additionally, fake passports were found on Aijaz’s laptop, issued in the names of P Kumar and Ravi Sinha of Patna, featuring photos of Asadullah.