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Indore raids net top SIMI leadership

Praveen Swami

Arrests could unravel terror networks

Safdar Nagori, SIMI’s top jihadist ideologue, among those arrested
Political Islamists within SIMI may emerge stronger

NEW DELHI: Police in Indore have arrested 10 leaders of the Students Islamic Movement of India in a dramatic intelligence-led operation that could help to unravel jihadist networks responsible for major terrorist bombings.

Key among those arrested are general-secretary Safdar Nagori, the organisation’s top jihadist ideologue and organiser, and Shibly Peedical Abdul, a Kerala-born computer engineer sought by police ever since the Lashkar-e-Taiba-led 2006 serial bombings of Mumbai.

Officials say side arms, cartridges and special jungle ropes used in combat-hardening courses for SIMI cadre were found in the safehouse. Police also recovered two computers and external hard drives which, they believe, may contain data on SIMI’s structure, finances and strategy.

Top leaders

Wanted by police in six States, Nagori had evaded arrest ever since SIMI was proscribed in September 2001. Little is known about Nagori’s activities over the last seven years, other than that he sustained SIMI’s organisational networks in central and western India through front organisations such as the Tehreek Ihya-e-Ummat, or the Movement for the Revival of Muslims.

Nagori is not thought to have personally carried out terrorist operations, but investigators believe that he provided logistics support and finance to SIMI’s jihadist cells. Much of this is thought to have been sourced from West Asia-based supporters, Pakistan-based terror groups such as the Lashkar, and the Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate.

One of Nagori’s most successful networks was run by Abdul, who worked as computer engineer in a multinational company before setting up an independent firm. Ehtesham Siddiqui, SIMI’s Maharashtra general secretary and one of the alleged architects of the 2006 bombings, first told police that Abdul had a parallel life as one of top operatives of the proscribed Islamist group.

Operating through a religious front-organisation, Abdul recruited over a dozen local men to SARANI — men who set up the jihad cell discovered by police in Bangalore last month. He is believed to have participated in a conclave of SIMI members at Ujjain from July 4 to 7, 2006, where plans to revitalise the jihad in India were discussed.

Several members of the terror cell that executed the 2006 Mumbai bombings, which claimed 209 lives and left 704 injured, participated in the Ujjain discussions — among them computer technician and SARANI member Muzammil Sheikh, who is now being tried for his role, along with his brother, Faisal Sheikh, in the serial bombings.

Unconfirmed reports suggest that one of the men arrested in Indore could be Mohammad Adnan, a key south India SIMI organiser. A resident of Bijapur in Karnataka, Adnan is alleged to have provided weapons and training to Abdul’s Bangalore jihad cell. However, sources in the Indore police said confirmation of the suspect’s identity was still awaited.

Back to roots

Wednesday’s arrests could strengthen political Islamists within SIMI who have been struggling to bring the organisation back to its political roots. SIMI leaders grouped around its former president, Shahid Badr Falahi, long argued that the organisation’s turn to terror would be disastrous, and made persistent efforts to marginalise jihadists in its ranks.

In January, 2006, SIMI members met in secret to discuss means to have the ban on the organisation revoked, and elected West Bengal’s Mohammad Misbah-ul-Islam their new president.

Again, in January 2007, a senior New Delhi-based Jamaat-e-Islami leader hosted a meeting of the political Islamists to discuss strategies to distance SIMI from the jihadists.

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