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National

SIMI network in many States exposed

Manas Dasgupta

“A matter of time before external hand behind the bomb blasts is established”

— Photos: AP, AFP

THE “PERPETRATORS”: The nine SIMI activists (faces covered), arrested in connection with the Gujarat serial blasts case, being presented before the media in Ahmedabad on Saturday. At right, DGP of Gujarat P.C. Pande addresses journalists.

AHMEDABAD: The July 26 serial bomb blasts here that killed 53 people and injured over 200 were carried out by SIMI activists from Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Karnataka with local support from Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Surat and Broach.

Gujarat Director-General of Police P.C. Pandey told journalists here on Saturday that so far the police had not been able to establish the militants’ direct links with the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba or the Bangladesh-based HUJI. “But we all know that somewhere at the top the local terror groups are actively linked with the LeT, HUJI as well as Pakistan’s ISI. It is only a matter of time before the external hand behind the bomb blasts in Ahmedabad and possibly some other parts of the country is established,” he said.

Besides Mr. Pandey, Ahmedabad Police Commissioner O.P. Mathur, Vadodara Police Commissioner Rakesh Asthana and Crime Branch Joint Police Commissioner Ashish Bhatia, who played an active role in cracking the entire terror network, were present at the press conference.

Mr. Pandey and Mr. Bhatia said the arrest of Javed Sheikh, a resident of Juhapura locality in the city, led to the arrest of eight more, four each in Ahmedabad and Vadodara, who were actively involved in the planning, and execution of the serial blasts in Ahmedabad and the planting of bombs in Surat.

Saturday’s arrest of Abul Bashar Qasmi, the mastermind behind the Ahmedabad blasts, from his native village in Azamgarh in Uttar Pradesh, was expected to facilitate the arrests of several others known to be involved.

He said the “Indian Mujahideen,” in whose name the warning e-mail was sent minutes before the Ahmedabad serial blasts, was nothing but another name of the SIMI. After the SIMI was banned, its activists were operating under the name of Indian Mujahideen and were mainly carrying out bomb blasts, kidnapping or hijacking to get some of its key leaders released.

Mr. Bhatia said the planning for the Ahmedabad blasts and in some other centres started in Kerala, where a secret training camp was organised in the Wagamon forests last December.

The camp was attended by about 50 youth members of the SIMI from Gujarat, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, U.P., Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, Kerala, Karnataka and some other States. In the four-day camp, the participants were given preliminary training in rock climbing, map reading, air pistol firing, guerilla warfare and other such activities. They were also trained in misleading the police, and in raising a hue and cry over human rights violations in case of arrests and other fringe issues. Among the leaders who delivered fiery “jehadi” speeches to instigate youth to terror activities were Safdar Nagori, who was arrested in Indore in March, and Karimuddin Nagori.

After the Kerala camp, Safdar, Karimuddin and Hafiz Hussain visited Ahmedabad and Vadodara to net in more young SIMI activists in the State. Another training camp, mainly to train the youth participants from Gujarat to participate in terror operations, was held in the Pavagadh hills in Halol, about 50 km from Vadodara, in January this year. After the arrest of Safdar Nagori in March, Mufti Abu Bashir, Vadodara-based Kayamuddin, and a Mumbai-based top official of a software company, all SIMI activists, took charge.

Terror groups

They frequently visited Gujarat and with the assistance of Kayamuddin organised terror groups in Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Surat and other places. Javed Sheikh, who attended the Kerala and Pavagadh camps, provided shelter to Kayamuddin and the Mumbai-based activist and they together contacted Imran in Vadodara, who was among those who manufactured the bombs used in the blasts. The group also arranged for purchasing old bicycles from Sarangpur, Shah Alam and Dani Limda in Ahmedabad for planting the bombs. In addition to the local members in Ahmedabad, Vadodara and Surat, five SIMI activists from M.P., and two each from Maharashtra and Karnataka were commissioned for carrying out the serial blasts.

Several rounds of meetings were held to give final touches to the planning, all of them attended by Qasmi: In April, at the residence of Yusuf Mansuri in Bapunagar in Ahmedabad; at Samsuddin’s residence in Ahmedabad in May; and the last two meetings in June and on July 20, in which the July 26 date to carry out the blasts was decided, at Javed Sheikh’s Juhapura residence.

Mr. Bhatia said the two cars, converted into car bombs and which exploded outside the trauma centre in the Civil Hospital and the L.G. Municipal Hospital, were stolen from Navi Mumbai and then taken to Vapi on the Gujarat-Maharashtra border, where the number plates were changed. Later, the cars were kept outside the farm house of a friend of Sajid Mansuri in Broach.

The cars were loaded with explosives in Vadodara and most of the bombs were also manufactured in Ahmedabad and Vadodara.

“We also know who stole the cars, who brought these to Vapi and Vadodara and who finally took them to Ahmedabad. Javed Sheikh, being an expert driver, was given the responsibility of the cars,” he said.

Questioning of Javed led to the arrests of Yunus Mansuri, Samsuddin Sheikh, Arif Quadri and Gyasuddin in Ahmedabad, and Imran, Usman Agarbattiwala, Iqbal Sheikh and Sajid Mansuri in Vadodara.

Mr. Pandey complimented various Central agencies on providing intelligence inputs, and the police from Maharashtra, Kerala, Rajasthan, Delhi, Karnataka and several other States on their “united efforts” in enabling the Gujarat police to crack the case.

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