‘I fear my son will be killed,’ says Yasin bhatkal’s mother

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The 32-year-old, who has been accused of carrying out a series of blasts in the country and was arrested in 2013 near the India-Nepal border, was in the news recently over a purported telephone conversation with his wife Zahida in which he allegedly spoke of an escape plan with the help of Islamic State.

“My son fears that the police will kill him in a staged encounter,’’ Rehana Siddibapa said at a press conference in Bhatkal. Asked how her son could reach out to IS leaders for their help to escape, she said: “Through false reports they are readying the ground for a fake encounter.” Yasin had told her that security agencies would kill him because they had failed to find evidence to prove his involvement in the blasts, she claimed.

She also referred to the killing of IM member and her son’s associate Qateel Siddiqui in Pune’s Yerawada prison in July 2012 and the alleged fake encounter in which five “SIMI members” were killed in Hyderabad recently.

“As a mother she fears for his life. When she met him in prison he told her he was going to be killed. He also told her he was innocent,’’ Yasin’s uncle Yakub Siddibappa said. Yasin is awaiting trial in over half-a-dozen blasts involving the IM across India between 2006-2013.