Maharashtra’s Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) suspects that the conspiracy for the serial bomb blasts in Ahmedabad on July 26 was hatched by the Students Islamic Movement of India (Simi)
Maharashtra’s Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) suspects that the conspiracy for the serial bomb blasts in Ahmedabad on July 26 was hatched by the Students Islamic Movement of India (Simi) during a meeting in Gujarat in January.
Around 15 SIMI men, including its chief Safdar Nagori, his deputy Shibli Abdul, and Sajid Mansoori and Asif Kagzi, two high-ranking activists from Gujarat, attended the two-day training camp in a forest area near Halol, around 50km from Baroda, on January 13-14, the ATS said.
They were trained in the use of firearms and explosives, communications, networking, trekking and swimming, Abdul, who was arrested in March from Madhya Pradesh, told the ATS. Mansoori, from Baroda, and Kagzi, from Ahmedabad, are believed to have gone underground after the blasts.
The ATS is also inquiring into the three-day camp the Simi had held in Kerala last December. The camp was organised in the forest area at Wagamon near Aluva in the Idukki district on December 8, 9 and 10, Simi operative Riyazuddin Nasir, who was arrested from Bangalore in February, told the ATS. Three activists from Gujarat — Abu Bakr, Hamza Shahid and Rashad — attended the camp.
“Members from various other states, including Fahim and Naved from Maharashtra, also attended the camp,” an ATS officer who did not wish to be named said. “We are concentrating on the three members from Gujarat and the two from Maharashtra (in the investigation). Their whereabouts are not yet known,” the officer said.
During the camp, the members trekked, did rope and rock climbing and also pitched tents. They discussed their success in luring more Muslim youths towards the group. After the camp, the members went to their respective states, the officer said.
“The details of the meetings came out in the statements of the two arrested activists,” additional commissioner of police Param Bir Singh said. “We are looking into statements as part of our investigations into the serial bomb blasts in Ahmedabad,” Singh said.
d_nikhil@dnaindia.net
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