Author: Parth Shastri
Publication: The Times of India
Date: August 18, 2008
The Khumtir dargah, sometimes pronounced Khuntmir
by locals, was where SIMI activists set up a terror training camp in January
2008 to plan the bomb attacks on Ahmedabad and Surat. The shrine was attacked
and partly damaged during the Gujarat riots of 2002.
The shrine-located between Halol and Pavagadh
in Panchmahals district-is named after a saint with the same name and is a
popular place of worship for the Tai sect of Muslims. The Tais stay mostly
in south and central Gujarat, but the shrine is popular among worshippers
from Andhra Pradesh, UP, Rajasthan, Maharashtra and Karnataka as well.
The Tais are a wealthy businessmen community
and are seen as moderates. Most of them are shocked by the reported disclosure
by SIMI activists arrested for the Ahmedabad blasts that Khumtir was used
for a training camp.
"We are all shocked by these developments,"
said Noor Mohammed Rathod, a cleric from Halol. Police officials however told
TOI that the jungles behind the shrine, located at the foothills of Pavagadh,
provided ideal cover for the camp. The approach to the spot where the camp
was held is cut off by a stone quarry. The forest department stopped excavation
there five years ago due to its impact on the environment.
Officials who visited the site said the terrorists
had set up commando training facilities for rope climbing, hurdles and even
made a make-shift firing range. "The Panchmahals police sometimes uses
the same area as a firing range. This is why even the people who stay nearby
did not notice anything amiss while the camp was in operation," said
the official.
Ameel Parvez-the member of SIMI's central
advisory committee who was arrested from Indore in March 2008 along with radical
leader Safdar Nagori-had described the spot during interrogation as "near
a dargah on the highway, around 40 kms from Vadodara." "This region
has many dargahs and other shrines, all of which are now under surveillance,"
said J R Mothaliya, superintendent of police, Panchmahals.
