Karnataka   

Hubli is SIMI’s hub of activities

BANGALORE: The Karnataka police, who are investigating a terror module that was recently busted by the Davanagere police have woken up to the startling fact that the banned Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) had spread its network across the State and Hubli was the hub of its activities.Investigations by the police revealed that despite the ban imposed on SIMI in 2001 for its links with terrorist outfits, the organisation has been active in Karnataka. An all-India office-bearer of SIMI, Adnan of Bijapur, has played a vital role in the organisation gaining ground in the State, particularly north Karnataka. Hubli was the meeting point for these activists, sources in the investigation team told The Hindu on Saturday.

Two students of Karnataka Institute of Medical Sciences (KIMS) in Hubli, who have been arrested on charge of waging a war against the Indian Government and sedition, were drawn into the organisation by Adnan, an engineering graduate, who is at large.

Allah Baksh, a house surgeon at KIMS, was arrested by a team from the Corps of Detectives (CoD) on Friday. Despite knowing the antecedents of Adnan, Baksh got him a house in Hubli and paying the rent, a senior officer from the CoD said. The police have quizzed around 10 medicos from KIMS.

Under Adnan’s leadership, SIMI activists had held three meetings in and around Hubli since May last. These meetings were held near a Dargha on Saudatti Road, a farmhouse on Haliyal Road and in the Dandeli forests bordering Dharwad district. Around 25 activists from Karnataka, Kerala, Uttar Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh attended the meetings.

They had plotted several sabotage activities and discussed the plight of Muslims the world over and the U.S. attitude towards Islamic nations and organisations, the sources said.

Although the Pakistan-trained terror suspect Riyazuddin Nasir, who was arrested by the Davanagere police on January 11, had been in touch with these SIMI activists, he had reportedly not attended the meetings.

According to sources, Adnan is an arms supplier and he is believed to be in possession of a consignment of arms that had originated from Pakistan and reached Karnataka through Ujjain in Madhya Pradesh.

A police team from Davangere searched for arms and ammunition at Adnan’s house in Gol Gumbaz police station limits in Bijapur.

The police learnt about Adnan and the SIMI network after they arrested Mohammed Asif, a final year MBBS student of KIMS on the basis of the information provided by Nasir and his accomplice Asadullah Abubaker.

Davangere Staff Correspondent reports:

Meanwhile, the CoD officials on Saturday produced Nasir and Aasadullah before the Judicial First Class Magistrate in Honnali in Davangere district.

The magistrate remanded the two in police custody till February 14. Subsequently, the two were brought back to Bangalore for investigations. Before they were taken to Honnali, Nasir and Asadullah were subjected to polygraph, brain mapping and narco analysis tests here.

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