Author: J Dey
Publication: The Indian Express
Date: April 27, 2003
After a tip-off, Crime Branch sleuths
pick up more than 20 SIMI suspects for questioning
DEPORTED gangster Anil Parab's disclosures
that his former mentor Dawood Ibrahim activated a Student Islamic Movement
in India (SIMI) module to engineer another blast in Mumbai has recently
got the crime branch into a huddle.
After a tip-off from an intelligence
agency, various crime branch teams have been sweeping suspected SIMI strongholds.
More than 20 suspects, have been picked up for questioning in the past
one week.
Dawood with the help of Pakistani
Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) is planning another blast in the city,"
Deputy Commissioner of Police (crime) told The Indian Express." A SIMI
group has been trained for the job."
The police say Dawood, in concert
with the ISI, probably engineered 15 blasts in the city in the past 10
years.
Crime branch sources said a group
of SIMI activists are working on giving the plan final touches. Chemicals
required for the making the Improvised Explosive Devise has also been procured,
the sources added.
Most of the crime branch units have
been divided into groups and some of the teams are scouring areas as far
as Nashik and Pune. The epicentre of the search operations, however, is
located at Borivali near Padga in Thane district.
The residents of Borivali were in
the news recently when they told The Indian Express that they lived in
fear of police searches. The police say they face hostility and do not
ordinarily enter the village.
Long meetings are underway at the
Crime Branch headquarters in Crawford Market and new officers are being
roped in for logistics support.
The needle of suspicion points to
Ibrar Ahmed, a close associate of Mohammed Saquib Nachen alias Ravesh.
The duo had undergone training in
arms and ammunition at a Hizbul Mujhahdeen camp near Peshawar in 1993,
sources said.
These developments come hot on the
heels of Mumbai police having foiled some Karachi-based gangsters attempt
to rig the Sri Lanka-Pakistan match during the Champions Trophy at Sharjah
to fund the SIMI activities in the state in 2001. The money from betting
circles was intended for fighting court cases and other related activities,
police sources informed.
