Author: Vicky Nanjappa in Bengaluru
Publication: Rediff.com
Date: August 21, 2008
URL: http://www.rediff.com/news/2008/aug/21simi.htm
When Students Islamic Movement of India chief
Safdar Nagori and his ten key associates were arrested in Indore in March,
security agencies claimed that terror operations in the country would come
to a grinding halt as the masterminds were now behind bars.
However that was not to be and in quick succession serial blasts rocked Jaipur,
Bengaluru and Ahmedabad leaving security agencies foxed.
Intelligence Bureau officials told rediff.com
that several important SIMI activists are still on the run. On top of the
list of wanted men is Mohammad Altaf Subhan.
Subhan is a key activist of SIMI and specialises
in designing bombs for the outfit. So impressed was Nagori with his skills
that he was made the head of SIMI's technical cell. IB officials say that
Subhan, a resident of Thane near Mumbai, had started imparting bomb-making
training to several SIMI activists across the country.
The confession statements of both alleged
Ahmedabad blasts mastermind Abdul Bashir and Nagori indicate that Subhan had
imparted training to SIMI activists across India. Prior to the Ahmedabad and
Bengaluru serial blasts, he had conducted training camps at Hubli in Karnataka,
Indore in Madhya Pradesh and Ernakulam in Kerala.
Investigating agencies say Subhan is a prize
catch because they are sure that he is one who had made the LeDs (Light emitting
Diodes -- semi conducting devices used to trigger bombs) for the bombs used
in Karnataka and Gujarat. A Hyderabad police team too has left to Gujarat
and will interrogate Bashir for more clues on Subhan and his whereabouts.
An officer in the Hyderabad police told rediff.com that they had information
that Subhan could also be behind the Hyderabad twin blasts on August 25.
Bashir said during interrogation said that
Subhan played a vital role in the Hyderabad and Jaipur blasts. An investigating
officer said that though Bashir was proving a tough nut to crack, he had dropped
enough hints regarding the involvement of Subhan in all four blasts (Hyderabad,
Bengaluru, Jaipur and Ahmedabad).