ATS CHIEF ALSO UNDER THREAT? ATS & police HQ were top IM targets, says Yasin Bhatkal S Ahmed Ali TNN  February 10, 2014 Mumbai: The Mumbai police headquarters atCrawford Market and Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) headquarters at the Traffic Institute in Nagpada were among the top targets of Indian Mujaheedin founder Riyaz Bhatkal, said Yasin Sadibappa alias Bhatkal, whose custody has been taken over by the Maharashtra ATS.     Yasin is believed to have told the police that IM co-founders—Riyaz and his elder brother Iqbal Bhatkal—were very upset after the city crime branch in 2008 busted the IM’s Pune module. Sources said that following the Batla House encounter, which hit the IM hard, the city crime branch then led by Rakesh Maria unearthed their hideouts in Udipi, Mangalore, from where the module was procuring explosives. “Yasin said Riyaz then asked him to carry out a blast inside the police HQ,” said an ATS officer.      Yasin said while he was in Mumbai in 2011 before the twin Kalbadevi blasts, Riyaz had assigned him the job of planting bombs inside the police headquarters. Yasin in turn asked Waqqas, the Pakistani suspect to conduct a recce of the police headquarters. “Waqqas visited the city police headquarters thrice and kept watch on all three gates for nearly two hours. To study the main gate, Waqqas stood in the BSES queue right outside the police headquarters pretending to pay an electricity bill,” said an officer. But Yasin said the plan failed after the police tracked them down to Habib mansion outside the Byculla station. “The IM module is also desperate to attack ATS chief Rakesh Maria as they believe Maria was instrumental in paralyzing the module in the last five years. And this is the reason why there are regular intelligence inputs of possible attacks on the ATS office and Maria has been given extra security,” said an officer. In the wake of inputs, the ATS recently raised its building height and erected a 15-mt watch tower.