NEW DELHI: Seventeen days after the arrest of Indian Mujahideen chief Yasin Bhatkal , one of India’s most wanted terrorists, another discovery has left intelligence agencies stunned.

If sources are to be believed, agencies have recovered a whopping 90 IEDs (improvised explosive devices ) from Zephyr Heights in Mangalore and Abdullapur in Hyderabad among other hideouts, indicating that the terrorist organization was planning a series of bomb blasts across the country.

In what can be considered as further evidence of the plan, all these devices were almost ready for use at the instance of Yasin and his aide Assadullah Akhtar alias Haddi. “Only the circuitry was not connected to the IEDs otherwise these bombs were ready to use,” said a top intelligence officer. Several unattached timers, batteries, detonators and shrapnels have also been recovered from various hideouts. All the IEDs, prima facie filled with ammonium nitrate, have been sent to forensic laboratories for examination.

A ‘singing’ Yasin Bhatkal — police jargon for an accused who is cooperating in interrogation — has revealed that he jointly prepared all these IEDs over several months with Pakistani bomb-expert Waqas, Tabrez (Assadullah Akhtar alias Haddi) and Tehsin Akhtar alias Monu since 2011.

The IEDs were reportedly being guarded by Yasin’s confidante Tehsin and Waqas. But after Yasin’s arrest on August 28 , they fled from their flat in a hurry, said a source. The bombs that went off in Hyderabad’s Dilsukhnagar on February 21, 2013 were also reportedly made in one of these hideouts.

Yasin, however, has not disclosed the future attack plans as yet, but intelligence officials believe the IEDs were to be used for a series of blasts. The IM founder, alongwith Tehsin, received “big amounts” for preparing the bombs and other expenses in Mangalore through Western Union money transfer, said an officer.

Yasin himself has not visited these places since 2013 as he had been exposed too much in previous blasts. But he used to interact with Monu and Waqas through email and on phone from numbers obtained through fake IDs. “Although Yasin himself arranged material for explosives from various places in Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka in the past, he was instructed by Riyaz and Iqbal Bhatkal earlier this year that he should not go to India and stay in Nepal,” said an officer.

NIA and other agencies have identified some places where IM members used to procure ammonium nitrate. It is suspected that IM operatives work alongwith some sleeper cells in the south for logistical activities.

“Riyaz and Iqbal have old friends in Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh who may have helped in arranging rented accommodations for Waqas and Tehsin and earlier for Yasin,” the officer said.