Author: Suchandana Gupta
Publication: The Times of India
Date: March 28, 2008
Introduction: State Chiefs Were Planning Future
Attacks
Alerted by the Intelligence Bureau, the MP
police raided several places in Indore at the crack of dawn on Thursday and
arrested 13 top leaders of the banned Students' Islamic Movement of India
(SIMI).
The police said these active members of the
banned organisation are from various states, including Kerala, Karnataka,
UP, Haryana, Maharashtra and MP. Amongst those in the police net are SIMI's
MP chief Safdar Nagori, his brother Kamruddin Nagori, as also Aamir Pervez,
Hafiz Hussain and Shivli.
Speaking to TOI, Indore IGP Anil Kumar said,
"Their names figure in a number of bomb blast cases in other states.
Our counterparts in other states have been informed and the details are coming
in. After preliminary investigations, we have found that these persons form
the apex body of SIMI and were in Indore for their annual meeting. So far,
they have confessed that they were reviewing and assessing their activities
in the past year and were planning their targets for next year. They were
also planning their future activities, including how to train their action
teams.''
The son of a retired sub-inspector, Safdar
Nagori is also wanted in five other criminal cases in MP, said the police.
His family lives in Mahidpur in Ujjain and brother Kamruddin is attached to
SIMI activities in both MP and UP, the police said. Hafiz Hussain is the SIMI
chief in Karnataka and Shivli is the mainstay of SIMI operations in Kerala.
Shivli, too, is wanted in several blast cases. The MP police have sent out
teams to all the states concerned to find out more about the activities of
those arrested. Incidentally, all the states (except MP and Haryana) to which
the arrested SIMI men belong have suffered terror attacks in the past.
On Wednesday, Indore was observing Rang Panchami
when the cops got information about a SIMI meeting being held in Gulzar Colony.
Acting on it, policemen in plain clothes raided the house around 4 am on Thursday
and arrested the suspects. IG Anil Kumar said: "We have recovered incriminating
evidence in the form of documents on paper and electronic documents, including
SIMI literature. We also recovered pistols, cartridges, nine mobile phones,
Rs 45,000 in cash, 15 masks, 22 pairs of surgical gloves and surgical instruments.''
