Post-Godhra riots split the Simi, gave birth to Indian Mujahideen

Terrorist outfit Indian Mujahideen (IM), which the Centre banned on Friday, was born eight years ago following a split in the Students Islamic Movement of India (Simi).

The post-Godhra riots led to the formation of the IM. Hardliners in Simi, led by Safdar Nagori, broke away from the moderates, headed by Mohammed Islam, former chief coordinator of Simi.

The hard-line faction decided to launch a militant outfit, and got immediate support from Pakistan’s spy agency, ISI.

The militant wing was co-founded by Aamir Reza Khan, Riyaz Bhatkal and Iqbal Bhatkal. Among the other founder members were Sadiq Shaikh (arrested) and Atif Amin (killed in the Batla House encounter in New Delhi).

The outfit was first named Furqan. In Arabic it means one who differentiates between haq [right] and batil [wrong]. “The members later thought the name was too technical for common men to understand. They rechristened the outfit Isaba, which in Arabic means the battalion of Prophet Mohammed. But again, not everyone was happy with it. Finally, they settle on the name Indian Mujahideen,” a crime branch officer said.

It was Riyaz Bhatkal who first coined the name Indian Mujahideen in the emails he sent to some media houses just minutes before the Jaipur blasts in May 2008.

Earlier, too, the outfit had triggered blasts in various places, but the Jaipur attack, which claimed around 80 lives, first brought them into the limelight.

Riyaz also decided on the email address — al_arbi_delhi@yahoo.com — the group would use to deliver their
terror warnings to media houses, the crime branch officer said.

Riyaz made his first forays into crime by running an extortion racket at Kurla. His outfit was known as the Riyaz Nakhuda (RN) gang.

Several cases of extortion had been registered against the gang members. After he was indoctrinated, Riyaz shut down operations of the RN gang and joined the militant Simi faction, which later became the IM.