Author: Mateen Hafeez
Publication: The Times of India
Date: May 18, 2006
The suspected terrorists who were recently
arrested in Malegaon for possessing and transporting arms and ammunition had
been on the police watch-list for the past five years.
One of the accused, Riyaz Ramzan alias Raju
(36), was in fact under the scanner after he raised anti-American slogans
during a rally in October 2001. According to the Malegaon police, Raju and
another accused, Javed Abdul Majeed, played a prominent role in the rally.
While Raju carried a picture of Al-Qaida chief Osama Bin Laden, Javed carried
a placard that read 'Osama Zindabad, Hum Tumhare Saath Hain'.
"From then on the local crime branch
and officials of the state intelligence department (SID) started keeping a
watch on their activities," a police official said.
Investigators said the accused were part of
a conspiracy hatched by an 'outside' terrorist outfit. Three others arrested
in the case are Dr Shareef Shabbir, Afzal Khan and Mustaque Ahmed.
Abdullah Shaikh, owner of the electronics
shop from where the arms were seized, is currently being questioned by the
police. "Shaikh had opened one of the five CPUs and saw AK-47s kept in
the box. However, he did not inform the police and acted as if he was unaware
of it," a senior officer said.
Sources said that in 2005, Raju formed an
NGO called Khair-e-Ummat. While Raju was president of this group, Shareef
was appointed vice-president.
However, Khair-e-Ummat followed the ideology
of the banned organisation, Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI), the
police said.
"The NGO also conducted a seminar last
August where speakers announced said that jihad was the only solution for
the survival of Muslims in the country On many occasions, the accused said
he wanted to go to Kashmir for training to fight against the Indian government,"
the police said.
"They would distribute pamphlets outside
mosques after Friday prayers and try to indoctrinate youth by showing them
photos of atrocities on the Muslims. For them, Khilafat (an Islamic government
with one leader) was the only way through which Muslims could stop the alleged
atrocities on the community the accused would identify Muslim youth in the
city and befriend them.
Later, they would take the sympathisers to
the SIMI office and show them banned videos containing visuals of over eight
to 10 communal riots across the country," said a police officer.
Sources said that Javed had even tried to
stop his friends from casting their votes in the 2004 assembly elections saying
that supporting a non-Islamic government was gunaah (sin).
