Aligarh, April 1977. Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) is born from an ideology of a handful of students claiming to liberate India from western influences and make the country’s muslim society to live according to the islamic code of conduct.
SIMI chose violence as a means to achieve their goal. Indian Mujahideen (IM), which is seen as spawned from the student organisation, isn’t a scholarly outfit but a fascist, terrorist organisation that intends to “demolish the faiths (all religions apart from Islam) of the infidels of India”. They claimed responsibility of 2008 Ahmedabad serial bomb blasts, which catapulted them to national infamy. They are a first of its kind organisation that germinates homegrown terrorists.
But National Investigating Agency (NIA) and police forces of New Delhi, Mumbai, Gujarat, Jharkhand and other states were successful in busting the IM module in 2008.
And they have not been able to regroup since. On World Anti-Terrorism Day, dna profiles Indian Mujahideen which, in its mail four minutes before the blasts in this city, had said, “We will kill all Hindus who took part in Gujarat 2002”.
Dormant but still dangerous
“The outfit seems to be in a dormant state doing some underground activities with pressure to regroup,” said AK Sharma, JCP with Detection of Crime Branch (DCB). They are trying hard to regroup but as all their masterminds are either arrested or evading from different agencies, it is difficult for them to regroup,” he added. Over 10 people, who were alleged as part of the outfit, have been arrested in the last one year. Shahid Nagori, who was caught by DCB in April, was the last among them.
Sleuths, however, are of the opinion that three mujahideens – Abdul Subhan Qureshi alias Tauqeer, Yasin Bhatkal and Riyaz Bhatkal – can be handful, deadly even, if they come out of hiding with a renewed vigour. The Bhatkals are believed to be hiding in Pakistan, while Tauqeer is believed to be in country trying to regroup Indian Mujahideen.
2008 A’bad blasts: Indian Mujahideen’s claim-to-infamy
To carve IM out of SIMI was, in fact, Tauqeer’s brainchild. He and Safdar Nagori started it and later recruited Abu Bashir, Sajid Mansuri, Qayamuddin Kapadia, Younus Nagori, Fazal Rahman and many others to expand the group.
“Tauqeer was the instigator of the serial blasts (in Ahmedabad). He formed four wings – Planter, Resource, Media and Material – under as many heads to assure a smooth operation,” said a police officer, who was a part of the team that investigated the blasts.
Planter was the most important of the four wings, and it was headed by Tauqeer himself. “The planter wing was responsible for identifying, appointing and training people who planted the bombs in the city,” said another officer part of the investigations.
IM went on to attack Jaipur, Bangalore, New Delhi in 2008, and Pune and Varanasi in 2010. Which city will be their next target? We never know… or maybe, we’ll know just four minutes before the attack.
IM has been dormant for over two years now, but its band of homegrown terrorists can strike anywhere, anytime
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