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ATS may seek custody of Nagouri's deputy

The arrest of the self-styled chief of Students Islamic Movement of India, Safdar Nagouri, may have created much buzz among the security establishment in the country.

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Shibly Abdul, Simi’s most aggressive face, may have funded 11/7 attacks, say officials

MUMBAI: The arrest of the self-styled chief of Students Islamic Movement of India (Simi), Safdar Nagouri, may have created much buzz among the security establishment in the country. But anti-terrorism officials in the state seem more keen on having the custody of his deputy, Shibly Pedicaal Abdul, who was among the 13 Simi activists arrested by the Madhya Pradesh police recently.

The Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) may request the Madhya Pradesh police to send Abdul, and not Nagouri, first to Mumbai.
 
The Simi chief was to be brought to Mumbai for questioning in connection with the serial train blasts in 2006.

State intelligence officials suspect that Shibly had floated his own firms to use them as fronts for laundering money to fund terror attacks, like the Mumbai train bombings and the bomb blasts in Hyderabad.

ATS officials said Shibly has been the most aggressive face of Simi, which was outlawed in 2002, in recent times. He has been the chief recruiter of activists for Simi in the past two years. ATS officials don’t rule out the possibility of him having recruited people for the Mumbai attack.

He appealed a lot to the educated Muslims, said a senior intelligence official keeping a tab on Simi’s affairs. He convinced many youngsters to join the organisation, the official said.

Sources said Shibly may have attended the Simi conclave in Ujjain ahead of the train bombings.

Shibly, a qualified computer engineer from Kerala, had travelled around the country to recruit people for Simi, but he had managed to evade the police on a couple of occasions.

“He is a good catch, particularly at a time when the Simi is struggling to return to relevance by recruiting well-educated Muslim youths around the country,” said senior ATS officer Parambir Singh. 

He was an effective man manger and that makes his arrest all the more crucial, a senior intelligence official remarked. Intelligence officials tracking Simi affairs said they have reasons to believe Shibly might impart vital detail on the group’s penetration into large parts of rural southern and western India.

At least three dozen Simi activists had come under the scanner of the Maharashtra state intelligence department (SID) for their “involvement” in suspicious activities.
 
d_anupam@dnaindia.net

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