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SIMI hand in Azad Maidan mayhem

Author: Rakesh K Singh
Publication: The Pioneer
Date: August 17, 2012
URL: http://www.dailypioneer.com/home/online-channel/360-todays-newspaper/87824-simi-hand-in-azad-maidan-mayhem.html

Banned Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) had a role in the violence at Azad Maidan in Mumbai in which two persons were killed and scores of others injured.

Security agencies have pinpointed SIMI operative Saquib Nachan to be the mastermind of the attack against the police, media personnel and civilians at a protest rally by Muslims against the ongoing violence in North-East between the Bodo tribals and the illegal Bangladeshi immigrants.

Nachan is an accused in the 1985 Kanishka plane crash and a prime accused in 2003 suburban train bombings at Mulund in Mumbai. He has undergone eight years judicial custody in both the cases and is presently out on bail. In the Kanishka plane bombing, he is accused of providing logistics and hideout to the prime accused of the case, Lal Singh and other accomplices including CM Bashir and Sheikh Hussain Fareed alias ‘Bilal’.

The revelation of his involvement in the latest terror attack came after interrogation of 23 persons accused of rioting in Mumbai this month. The arrested accused have revealed that he had instructed the participants to target media personnel and their OB vans outside the venue of the protest by the Muslims.

Nachan is known to harbour a vindictive attitude toward the media and his lawyers have in the past been sending legal notices to media houses for carrying reports against him.

The agencies have swung into action to ascertain if Nachan and his cohorts have a role in the sustained hate campaign against people of the North-East across the country and the larger design behind the subversive campaign.

Nachan has been an active operative of the SIMI in Mumbai and has extensive links with other operatives of the outfit, particularly in Maharashtra. He is suspected to have been acting in close coordination with Abdul Subhan alias ‘Tauqeer’ and Faisal besides Abrar of Kolhapur in Maharashtra and Kaleem Akhtar (who handles finance for the banned outfit).

The agencies have launched a manhunt to trace the notorious terror mastermind and teams have fanned out to various locations in Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat.

Armed protesters at the Azad Maidan had hit as many as 45 police personnel and two dozen civilians including media OB vans.

Former Union Home Minister P Chidambaram had on July 31 said the operatives of SIMI are carrying forward the subversive agenda through associations with different outfits in different States. Chidambaram had also said that the Centre is keeping a track of such outfits and suitable action would be taken against them.

SIMI was banned in September 2001 but a series of attacks between 2003 and 2008 across the country were linked to the outfit notwithstanding arrest of its top leadership including the group’s president Safdar Nagori in 2008 by Madhya Pradesh police.

The outfit had organised arms training camps at various locations in Madhya Pradesh, Kerala and Karnataka from 1999 to 2008 and aims at overthrowing the democratic set up with an Islamic state.

The Mumbai police have termed the incident as an act of terror and accordingly probing the case.

“A probe is on to unravel if the attack at Azad Maidan and subsequent hate campaign against people of the Northeast are part of any larger conspiracy against the state so that corrective measures are taken well in time. The probe will also ascertain if the sleeper cells of terror outfit have been activated and who are the conspirators,” an official said.
 
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