Simi men still out there

NEW DELHI: The Indian security establishment is racing against time to prevent the next terror strike. A nationwide coordinated effort to trace terror suspects may have resulted in a few arrests, including that of cleric Mufti Abu Bashir from Uttar Pradesh, but security agencies believe that he is not the terror mastermind.

Investigators believe that several key operatives of the banned Students Islamic Movement of India (Simi) may be still planning more terror attacks.
“Bashir may have led the operation (in Gujarat and elsewhere), but the masterminds of the Ahmedabad and other blasts are out there,” a senior official in the security establishment said. “The entire puzzle is not yet solved,” he added.

Sources say the Gujarat police’s haste in announcing that Bashir masterminded the July 26 Ahmedabad serial blasts has hampered their efforts to get those who plotted the terror attacks as well as other Simi supporters who were part of the Safdar Nagori faction.

Nagori and about 10 other members of the hardline Simi faction were arrested in Indore in March in a follow-up to the arrest of Riyazuddin Nasir and others in Karnataka earlier in the year.

Many sources in the security establishment, while attaching credibility to the claims made by the Gujarat police, say that the real masterminds behind the serial blasts that have rocked Ahmedabad, Jaipur, Hyderabad, Uttar Pradesh and Bangalore are the ones to be pursued. “We need to take the investigation forward, all over India, and should not wait for the next attack,” a senior official said.

According to the Intelligence Bureau, there are more than 2000 Simi members, and the Maharashtra police alone have questioned or surveyed more than 500 of them over the years. “Not all of them will take to violence, but it is a very easy recruitment base for terrorism,” says an official.  

The Nagori faction’s executive committee had some 20 members and several times that number in the second rung.

“We are still in a cat-and-mouse game with local terrorists,” says an official, pointing out that at least over 100 people were in close and regular contact with the Nagori faction’s senior leadership. “We have accounted for about 50 or so. But where are the rest?” the  official asked.

Blasts could have been pre-empted : The serial blasts in Ahmedabad on July 26, and probably some other recent attacks, could have been avoided had police and intelligence agencies investigated leads available from the interrogation of several key Simi functionaries arrested in Karnataka and Indore earlier this year.

“I wish we had then shown the kind of coordination and trust in each other we are exhibiting now,” a senior official said, pointing to the nationwide raids to track down terror suspects after the Ahmedabad blasts.

Sources said the directors general of police from Maharashtra, Gujarat, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan had a quiet meeting in Mumbai in the very beginning of August, after the Ahmedabad blasts. In the second week of August, officials from these states met in Delhi at least a couple of times. At all these meetings, the states exchanged notes on the Simi network and that has helped nab at least the foot soldiers behind the Ahmedabad blasts.

“In both Bangalore and Indore, police officials from most states, including Gujarat, had come and interrogated or shared information with us,” says a source. “Had they worked properly on the leads available, Ahmedabad and many other blasts could have been avoided,” he said.

The Pakistan connection : The other key issue that investigators are yet to figure out is if there are more Simi members other than Riyazuddin who went to Pakistan and received terror training.

Riyazuddin, lodged in a Karnataka jail, is the son of Moulana Mohammed Naseeruddin, a Hyderabadi cleric now in Gujarat jail for his role in the murder of BJP leader and former Gujarat home minister Haren Pandya. Riyazuddin, who was in Pakistan for a year, had confessed to the Nagori faction’s plans to strike terror in Goa, Maharashtra, Gujarat and other places.

Nagori himself had told police about terror training in Kerala and Karnataka, and their intention to carry out terrorist attacks.

Riyazuddin had admitted to his close association with Shahid Bilal, a Hyderabad resident and an ISI protégée who played a key role in several terror strikes in South India. They both spent almost a year together in Muridke, the Lashkar-e-Toiba headquarters and training centre in Pakistan. Bilal was reportedly killed in Karachi under mysterious circumstances in August last year, but his network, including some Indians, is still active through HuJI (Harkat-ul-Jihad-al Islami).

“Until we know the mechanics of their external support, we cannot be sure that we have neutralised the Simi network,” an official said.