SIMI has links with Lashker: 181 SIMI extremists arrested since 2006

SIMI has links with Lashker: Sriprakash Jaiswal

New Delhi, Apr 22 : Minister of State or Home Affairs Sriprakash Jaiswal told the Rajya Sabha today that the Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) has links with several terrorist groups, including Lashker-e-Toiba.

Jaiswal said the links have been revealed in investigations into a number of cases. The State Governments have arrested over 181 SIMI activists with arms, ammunition and other items since 2006.

Out of them, 128 were arrested in Madhya Pradesh, Jaiswal added.

He said that the law enforcement agencies keep watching the activities of all such organisations that have an adverse bearing on peace, communal harmony and security of the country and take action against them on a continuous basis.

India provided a list of 133 Pakistani prisoners and 14 Pakistani fishermen lodged in various Indian jails on March 31 and Pakistan has also provided a list of 53 Indian prisoners and 436 fishermen lodged in various Pakistani jails, he added.

The lists were exchanged in conformity with the recommendations of the India-Pakistan Judicial Committee set up pursuant to a bilateral understanding.

No specific time frame has been fixed for repatriation of these prisoners, he said.

— ANI

SIMI’s Shaheen Force: Women and Children as New Soliders of Islamic terrorism in India

Women & kids: The new soldiers of terror
Vicky Nanjappa

April 24, 2008
Shaheen Force, the women’s wing of the banned Students Islamic Movement of India, is spreading its tentacles all over India.

SIMI general secretary Safdar Nagori and his brother Qamruddin, who were recently arrested in Indore, revealed this chilling fact during their interrogation.

The main task of the Shaheen Force — which is most active in Hyderabad ? is to brainwash children into taking up the jihadi path.

A senior Hyderabad police official told rediff.com that SIMI has recruited around 110 women in the city. Intelligence Bureau officials say that the Karnataka unit of the Shaheen Force has recruited approximately 40 women.

The Hyderabad police believe that the 40 odd women, who stormed the Saidabad police station after the arrest of alleged SIMI activist Mohtasim Billa, might be members of the Shaheen Force. These women had allegedly roughed up the police officials and smashed window panes at the police station.

However, some people have a different take on the issue. Lateef Mohammad Khan, chairman of the Civil Liberties Monitoring Committee at Hyderabad, says that the police have been targeting Muslim youths and now they wanted to target the women.

“The women, who stormed the Saidabad police station, were accompanied by their children. They were protesting against, what they felt, was an atrocity against an innocent boy,” he said.

“The police are wrong. These women don’t belong to the Shaheen Force. The police are just trying to suppress these women, who raised their voices in protest. We have not even heard of the Shaheen Force till now,” said Khan.

The women’s wing of the SIMI was initially constituted to inculcate true Islamic values into children. As SIMI became increasingly radical with time, the role of the Shaheen Force changed too.

Safdar Nagori and his brother, during their interrogation, told the police that the Force was active in various parts of the country. They said that during recruitments to the Force, they tried to identify women who felt that Muslims were being targeted or sidelined in India.

The brothers told the police that the Force also provides logistical support to the people who cross over to India to carry out anti-national activities.

The police now feel that the Force might have helped the people who masterminded the blasts in Hyderabad, Ajmer and Uttar Pradesh

Karnataka police unearth explosives hidden by Islamic terrorists

Karnataka police unearth explosives
May 3, 2008

Hubli (PTI): The Karnataka Police, probing the terror network in the state, unearthed a major haul of explosives hidden by militants at a house on the city suburbs.

On the basis of information provided by five terrorists during interrogation, police searched a house in Simla Nagar last night and found the explosives hidden by them, DGP (Corps of Detectives) Alok Kumar told reporters here.

The explosives include 150 detonators and 50 gelatine sticks.

Besides, Adnan who was arrested in Indore recently, Sibli, Mirza Baig, Safdar Hussain Nagori and Kamuruddin were being interrogated to know about the terror plans, Kumar said.

Police said they have already “confessed” about their plans to target several places in Karnataka and Goa to trigger explosions.

He said the arrested have provided certain vital information on their network, but refused to elaborate.