SIMI did Ahmedabad blasts: Detailed report

Ahmedabad blasts case cracked, SIMI did it: cops
Express News Service: Sunday, August 17, 2008

The Gujarat Police today claimed to have busted a terror module of the Students’ Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) involved in the Ahmedabad blasts on July 26 following the arrests of 10 persons, including the alleged mastermind Mufti Abu Bashir. According to the police, these arrests could lead to clues on blasts in other states as well.

While five—Yunus Mansuri from Bapunagar, Samsuddin Shaikh from Dariapur, Arif Qadri from Shahpur, Gyasuddin Ansari from Gomtipur and Zahid Shaikh from Juhapura—were arrested from Ahmedabad city, three SIMI activists—Imran Shaikh, Usman Agarbattiwala and Iqbal Shaikh—were picked up from Vadodara. Sajid Mansuri, who was absconding since 2001, was arrested from Bharuch.

One of the two masterminds of the blasts, Mufti Abu Bashir, was picked up from Azamgarh with the help of the UP Police. Sources said that the Gujarat Police had told the UP Police to track down the mobile number of Bashir. Following the tip-off, his phone number was being tracked for a fortnight and he was actually detained on August 14.

Bashir’s name had come up during the interrogation of SIMI activists who were picked up after the Ahmedabad blasts. Two of whom, Sajid Mansuri and Imran Sheikh were in Jaipur during the Jaipur blasts. Joint Commissioner of Police Ashish Bhatia who was heading the investigation said, “The idea to trigger the blasts in various parts of the country including Ahmedabad was conceived in a terrorist training camp in Kerala, where Safdar Nagori and his brother Kamaruddin Nagori delivered instigating speeches.”

A similar terrorist camp was organised in Gujarat near Halol in January 2008 in which a number of youths from Vadodara and Ahmedabad participated. The conspiracy of the Ahmedabad blasts was hatched there. “Bashir and a computer expert from Mumbai are the masterminds of the blasts,” said Bhatia. Sources say the IT professional is Abdul Subban Qureshi who once worked with a direct selling agent of IT major Wipro.

“We had got human intelligence about the increasing activities at the residence of Zahid Shaikh in Juhapura area of Ahmedabad for the past several months. Following which Zahid was detained and during interrogation he spilled the beans on the other perpetrators of the terror act,” said a senior police official.

Meanwhile, while tracing lakhs of cell phone records of Ahmedabad city in past few months, DCB officials found that there were five numbers, which had only incoming calls. And all the calls were made through STD-PCO booths. And most of them originated from Juhapura. In the course of the investigation, it was found that Zahid Shaikh made the calls to Mufti Abu Bashir.

“Mufti Abu Bashir had purchased five SIM cards on the name of five local people and he had kept it with himself during his stay in Ahmedabad and the numbers went silent after July 26,” said Ashish Bhatia who has been heading the investigation.

Zahid Shaikh and Mansuri provided the logistic support to Mufti Abu Bashir and Qureshi, the two main conspirators of the terror plot, who stayed at a rented house in Vatva, Ahmedabd for around two months to plan the serial blasts.

Emphacising Bashir’s role in the blasts, Pandey said, “In fact, he (Abu Bashir) was in Ahmedabad when the blasts were carried out.”

Pointing to the kind of effort that was put in the investigation of the case Pandey said, “It was a joint operation of a number of agencies like the DCB, Gujarat ATS, Central Intelligence, Rajasthan Police, Hyderabad Police, Uttar Pradesh Police, Maharashtra Police and Delhi Police.”

Police officers are optimistic that the mystery of other terror strikes in country such as the Jaipur Blasts, the blasts at Gokul Chat and Lumbini Park in Hyderabad and courts in Uttar Pradesh may also be solved soon. “We have certain leads which suggest that the other bomb blasts may also be detected. Though, we cannot give more details on it as the investigations are on,” said Pandey.

Sources say that Sajid Mansuri and Imran Sheikh were in Jaipur on May 13, the day of the blasts. A SIMI suspect who was picked up by the Rajasthan police has spoken of a Sajid Bhai who was involved. Investigators suspect this could be Mansuri.

According to Bhatia, the bombs were made at Vatva and Kalpur areas of Ahmedabad and at Imran Shaikh’s house in Vadodara. Both Kamaruddin Nagori and the Mumbai IT expert (Qureshi) provided financial support to buy bicycles from Danilimda, Sarangpur and Shah Alam areas and other materials used in the blasts.

Police sources said vital clues to solve the jigsaw puzzle came from Hyderabad resident Raziuddin Nasir who was arrested from Hubli last year by Karnataka Police. Raziuddin is the son of Maulana Nasir, who was arrested by the Gujarat Police on October 31, 2004 from Hyderabad for his involvement in the murder of former minister of state for Home Haren Pandya. Raziuddin had told police that he had visited Pakistan to receive training.

The Hyderabad Police apparently exchanged the information with their Ahmedabad counterparts, which was followed by a long and tedious task to fit the pieces. “From here we started linking a long chain that ran through several cities and states and involved several people. We pieced together the information and clues and things fell into place. Leads to the blasts at Lumbini Park and Gokul Chat may also come out of the interrogation in a couple of days,” said Bhatia.

“Raziuddin had provided clues on SIMI’s activities, its links with Tamil Nadu based Al-Umma, to both Karnataka and Hyderabad police. He had also met Safdar Nagori late last year when Nagori made a secret visit to Hyderabad and resided in Saidabad area, where he discussed SIMI’s plans and views. He had also distributed jehadi pamphlets and CDs,” the police said.

A laptop, a safe house and a weeping Muslim solve Ahmedabad blast

A laptop, a safe house and a weeping SIMI man solve puzzle
Ritu Sarin, Sunday, August 17, 2008, Indian Express

A laptop belonging to Usman Agarbattiwala from which the electronic circuit for the Surat bombs was programmed; a safe house in Bharuch where the ammonium nitrate used for the Ahmedabad blasts was stored by Abdul Subban Qureshi; the confession of a weeping Zahid Sheikh that he indeed planted bombs on the cycles in Ahemdabad and last week’s crucial arrest of “foot-soldier” Imran Sheikh.

These are some of the key developments involving SIMI activists which, pieced together with a growing body of evidence in the form of interrogation reports and mobile phone records, resulted in the Gujarat Police’s dramatic admission that they had “cracked” the July 26 serial bomb blasts case in Ahmedabad. And unearthed crucial links to the earlier blasts in Jaipur and Bangalore.

While the Gujarat police named Mufti Abdul Bashir (arrested on Friday) as the “mastermind”, top officials in Delhi said that three other SIMI leaders had an equally important role to play. The two already apprehended are Sajid Mansuri, a former zonal secretary of SIMI in Gujarat and whose role in the May 13 blasts in Jaipur is under investigation, and Usman Agarbattiwala, a graduate from Vadodara’s MS University, whose seized laptop has been sent for forensic examination by the Gujarat police.

The key suspect who remains untraced is Abdul Subban Qureshi. An explosive expert who holds a diploma in electronic engineering, Qureshi is the one who reportedly procured ammonium nitrate and timers for the Ahmedabad operation and attended the meetings of the SIMI to plan the serial blasts.

The motive, according to confessions of the activists arrested in the case, was revenge for the 2002 Gujarat riots and the March arrest of SIMI chief Safdar Nagori.

It was the scrutiny of mobile phone call detail records (CDRs) that led to the initial breakthrough. The suspicious pattern of use of Imran Shaikh’s mobile phone and frequent location changes led to his detention last week. While Shaikh claimed he was not linked to the blasts, he named another SIMI activist, Zahid Sheikh. It was Sheikh who first broke down during interrogation and admitted to having planted bombs and named at least three people who were involved in the purchase of the bicycles and delivery of the crude bombs.

The arrested suspects have also named Abdul Subban Qureshi as the SIMI leader who prepared the three e-mails which announced the role of the “Indian Mujahideen” in the blasts. They have said Subban Qureshi wrote the mails and forwarded them to Mufti Bashir.

Kashmir’s hour of destiny has come: Islamofascist leader

Kashmir’s hour of destiny has come: separatist leader

Srinagar, Aug 17 (IANS) The Indian government’s talk of normalcy, of building roads, bridges and developing tourism in Jammu and Kashmir has proved to be a ‘mirage’, claims a separatist leader, insisting that the ‘hour of destiny’ for Kashmiris has come.

‘Please try and understand that the people are now in no mood to give up their right to self-determination,’ Nayeem Khan, chairman of the separatist National Front and also the provincial president of the moderate Hurriyat group, told IANS Sunday.

‘But we are against violence of any kind. We condemn violence against anybody and everybody,’ stressed Khan, who is also a member of the joint co-ordination committee set up by the two Hurriyat groups.

‘You should have seen the mood of the people in Pampore (during Saturday’s massive rally to pay tributes to slain Hurriyat leader Sheikh Abdul Aziz). You should have seen the attitude of the people at Baramulla when one of our senior most leaders, Shabir Ahmad Shah, who led the ‘Muzaffarabad Chalao’ march, tried to control and pacify the marchers,’ Khan said.

He agreed that the present separatist struggle was becoming too hot even for the separatist leaders to handle.

‘Our people have died in dozens during the last six days. Hundreds have been injured. What do we tell the people? Do we tell them go home and lick their wounds?

‘No, that is not possible now. Delhi spoke of normalcy, tourism, development, bridges, roads and tulip gardens. Now when all that has been proved to be a mirage, you are looking at us to cool down.

‘The present movement would only be contained if the government of India, without wasting any further time, opens up the Srinagar-Muzaffarabad trade route, repeals the draconian special powers act giving sweeping powers to its security forces and also begins the gradual withdrawal of its troops from the hinterland.

‘That to me appears the only possible means to cool down the tempers at the moment,’ Khan said.

While he agreed that shutdowns and protests had caused a lot of inconvenience to the common man, he claimed that the present situation had come about with the total participation of everybody in the Valley.

‘Do you think the youth who are highly surcharged at the moment are not educated enough to understand the economic fallout of what they are doing? Do you believe that thousands of people are coming out of their homes to agitate and protest for their democratic rights without understanding the larger implications of what they are doing?

‘The masses fully understand what they are doing and how volatile the situation is. But, having said that, it is the responsibility of the Indian government to understand that after 18 long years the propaganda that the situation has returned to normalcy has not helped anyone of us,’ Khan said.

Asked if he and other separatist leaders thought the people here endorsed secession from India, Khan said: ‘That is what we have been asking India and Pakistan to determine. Hold a referendum and you would know the results,’ he said.

Asked whether he understood that the economic sustenance of the Valley would not be possible outside India, Khan said: ‘That should be the worry of the people. Why are you worried on that count? It is our problem how Kashmir survives economically after independence, or after merger with Pakistan.

‘Allow us to determine our political future and then we will address our economic worries,’ he said.

His voice was hoarse obviously because he had done a lot of slogan shouting during Saturday’s rally at the south Kashmir Pampore town.

Kashmir Muslims’ hatred for India: Think the unthinkable

Counterpoint | Vir Sanghvi
August 16, 2008, Hindustan Times

To read this excellent article by Vir Sanghvi click Thinking The Unthinkable

Here is the relevant section

Contrary to what many Kashmiris claim, we have tried everything. Even today, the state enjoys a special status. Under Article 370 of our Constitution, with the exception of defence, foreign policy, and communication, no law enacted by parliament has any legitimacy in Kashmir unless the state government gives its consent. The state is the only one in India to have its own Constitution and the President of India cannot issue directions to the state government in exercise of the executive power of the Union as he can in every other state. Kashmiri are Indian citizens but Indians are not necessarily Kashmiri citizens. We cannot vote for elections to their assembly or own any property in Kashmir.

Then, there is the money. Bihar gets per capita central assistance of Rs 876 per year. Kashmir gets over ten times more: Rs 9,754 per year. While in Bihar and other states, this assistance is mainly in the forms of loans to the state, in Kashmir 90 per cent is an outright grant. Kashmir’s entire Five Year Plan expenditure is met by the Indian taxpayer. In addition, New Delhi keeps throwing more and more money at the state: in 2004, the Prime Minister gave Kashmir another $ 5 billion for development.

Kashmiris are happy to take the money and the special rights but they argue that India has been unfair to them because no free political process has developed. And, it is true that we have rigged elections in Kashmir. But, it is now nearly a decade since any rigging was alleged. Nobody disputes that the last election was fair. Moreover, even though the Congress got more seats than the PDP, the Chief Ministership went to Mufti Mohammad Sayeed as a gesture.

Given that Kashmir has the best deal of any Indian state, is there anything more we can do? Kashmiris talk about more autonomy. But I don’t see a) what more we can give them and b) how much difference it will make.

If you step back and think about it, the real question is not “how do we solve this month’s crisis”? It is: what does the Centre get in return for the special favours and the billions of dollars?

The short answer is: damn all.

As the current agitation demonstrates, far from gratitude, there is active hatred of India. Pakistan, a small, second-rate country that has been left far behind by India, suddenly acts as though it is on par with us, lecturing India in human rights and threatening to further internationalise the present crisis.

The world looks at us with dismay. If we are the largest democracy on the planet then how can we hang on to a people who have no desire to be part of India?

The other cost of Kashmir is military. Many terrorist acts, from the hijacking of IC 814 to the attack on parliament have Kashmir links. Our response to the parliament attack was Operation Parakram, which cost, in ten months, Rs 6,500 crore and 800 army lives? (Kargil cost us 474 lives.) Each day, our troops and paramilitary forces are subjected to terrorists’s attacks, stress, and ridicule.

So, here’s my question: why are we still hanging on to Kashmir if the Kashmiris don’t want to have anything to do with us?

The answer is machismo. We have been conned into believing that it would diminish India if Kashmir seceded. And so, as we lose lives and billions of dollars, the Kashmiris revel in calling us names knowing that we will never have the guts to let them go.

But would India really be diminished? One argument is that offering Kashmiris the right to self-determination would encourage every other secessionist group. But would it? Isn’t there already a sense in which we treat Kashmir as a special case? No other secessionist group gets Article 370 or so much extra consideration. Besides, if you take this line, then no solution (autonomy, soft borders etc.) is possible because you could argue that everybody else would want it too.

A second objection is that Indian secularism would be damaged by the secession of Kashmir. This is clearly not true. As history has shown, Indian Muslims feel no special kinship with Kashmir. They would not feel less Indian if some Kashmiris departed.

Moreover, too much is made of the size of Kashmir. Actually secessionist feeling is concentrated in the Valley, an area with a population of 4 million that is 98 per cent Muslim. (The Hindus either left or were driven out). Neither Jammu nor Ladakh want to secede. So, is the future of India to be held hostage to a population less than half the size of the population of Delhi?

I reckon we should hold a referendum in the Valley. Let the Kashmiris determine their own destiny. If they want to stay in India, they are welcome. But if they don’t, then we have no moral right to force them to remain. If they vote for integration with Pakistan, all this will mean is that Azad Kashmir will gain a little more territory. If they opt for independence, they will last for about 15 minutes without the billions that India has showered on them. But it will be their decision.

Whatever happens, how can India lose? If you believe in democracy, then giving Kashmiris the right to self-determination is the correct thing to do. And even if you don’t, surely we will be better off being rid of this constant, painful strain on our resources, our lives, and our honour as a nation?

This is India’s century. We have the world to conquer — and the means to do it. Kashmir is a 20th century problem. We cannot let it drag us down and bleed us as we assume our rightful place in the world.

It’s time to think the unthinkable.

Azamgarh: Islamic terror’s breeding ground

Azamgarh breeding ground for terror
17 Aug 2008, 0132 hrs IST, Manjari Mishra,TNN

LUCKNOW: Each annual visit to my hometown adds to my worries, says former Uttar Pradesh DGP Prakash Singh. Singh pointedly refers to a few pockets along the highway dotted with educational institutes which seem to have taken a couple of steps backwards sartorially and even intellectually. This in your face, fundamentalism is a far cry in a place once known for Hindu-Muslim synergy and high intellectual landmark.

To an outsider, the mofussil town of Azamgarh, 272km east of Lucknow, does offer a curious study in contrast. A side to it is petal soft-acclaimed literary masterpieces by Rahul Sankrityayan and poet Ayodhya Singh Upadhyaya ‘Hariaudh’, Kaifi Azmi and his soul-stirring verses, quite a few penned from his native village Phoolpur.

The other side is harsh. Forty murders in the last seven months, reveal police records. An ever-growing list of homegrown youth icons — mafia dons like Haji Mastan, Abu Salem or the musclemen in khadi like former MPs Rama Kant and Uma Kant Yadav. And finally, the by-product — an army of willing young converts waiting in the backwaters of Mohamadabad, Mubarakpur, Nizamabad, Khairabad, Bileriaganj, Anjan Shahid or Sarai Mir to begin their apprenticeship as a bootlegger/drug or arm-peddler in the Mumbai and Delhi underworld.

So no one turned a hair when Abu Salem Abdul Qayoom Ansari filed his nomination on the Rashtriya Samajwadi Party ticket on December 28, 2006. The announcement evoked mass hysteria at Sarai Mir, his birth place. Interestingly, this little island of prosperity, set amidst squalor and decay with rows of three-storied buildings, glass and chrome complexes, glitzy shops selling smuggled gizmos, PCOs with ISD facilities and ATM machines is no less an ocular shock to the unprepared.

“The transformation has taken a decade or so of hawala or blood money”, says local lawyer Dharmendra Upadhyay. “All top mafia, including Dawood Ibrahim, have their close relatives living here and their success stories have a fairy tale quality that holds great appeal to the youth here”, he adds.

The list of local cult figures is comprehensive. Abu Hashim, the first criminal arrested under Tada; Shahid Badra, the first president of SIMI, and Khalid Mujahid and Tariq Kasmi, the Gorakhpur blast suspects arrested from Azamgarh, local terror outfits are forging links with their international big leaguers, says Amitabh Yash, Special Task Force SSP.

Anil Gaur, a lawyer in the Azamgarh district court, traces the spiralling crime to the administrative neglect. Literacy is low. Though known to grow pulses, oil seeds, sugarcane, potato, mango and guava, the production has slipped over the years. Other factors are failing market of traditional zari sari and the Nizamabad black pottery. No new industries are eager to set base here despite Azamgarh putra Amar Singh, he says. Add to it, recurrent floods in the three rivers — Tons, Chhoti Saryu and Tamsa — that break the backbone of the rural folks practically each year.

Muslims are vulnerable due to their economic and educational backwardness, despite the presence of Shibli College, the prime institute run by the minority community, which had a secular credentials. Terror outfits are now trying to cash in on their ambitions. Therefore, congregations like Alimi Ijtema hosted by Tablighi Jamaat in Shervan village on December 31, 2007, attended by fifty lakh Muslims make intelligence agencies wake up. Very few have the makings of a jehadi but such mass gatherings do become a ground for talent hunt by terror kingpins, said a senior intelligence officer. And Azamgarh provides the most perfect breeding ground, he added.

Kerala, A Islamic terrorist haven: Training camps, hawala, Wahabbi influence, you have it all here

Jihadi Terrorism Training Camps in Kerala
The jihad in “God’s Own Country

God’s Own Country: Haven for hell’s angels?
17 Aug 2008,
Ananthakrishnan G ,TNN

Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala appears to be fast turning into a god-send state for terrorists . The training camp held by outlawed SIMI in the tourist haven of Vagamon in Idukki district in December 2007 seems to have gone unnoticed by police and intelligence agencies in Kerala until after the arrest of a couple of hardline jihadi cadres in Karnataka in January 2008.

A case in connection with the holding of the camp, which saw attendance of over 40 hardline jihadi cadres, was registered at the Mundakkayam police station only on June 19, 2008, more than 7 months after it was held. And that was all. Investigation into the case is yet to make any headway. The case was later transferred to the Crime Detachment unit for a more thorough probe.

The FIR under various sections of the IPC, Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act and Arms Act was registered on a complaint made by the intelligence wing. “We put in the charges as soon as the matter was reported to us,” sources in the police department said.

According to highly placed sources, the camp came to the notice of the police after the arrest of Riyazuddin Nasser, a Pakistan trained terrorist in Davengere in Karnataka in end January 2008. His interrogation led police to the arrest of SIMI leaders, including Safdar Nagori in Indore and to Vagamon. But all they found in Vagamon were some freshly painted logos of SIMI on a rocky surface in Thangalpura.

Sources claimed that training in sophisticated arms was given to the participants, a charge now confirmed by the Gujarat police too.

But there is more to the story. At least two of those who attended the Vagamon camp – Shaduli and Ansar Moulavi- had been arrested by Kerala police on August 15, 2006 for holding a meeting in Binanipuram in Alwaye near Kochi.

Though about 18 men took part in the meeting, Kerala police mysteriously arrested only 5 and let off the rest after making one of them the complainant in the case. Even those arrested got bail a few days later. Though fingers are being pointed at the role of some senior officers who are said to have enabled watering down of the case, the state is yet to nail them.

“We are inquiring into the matter,” state Home Secretary K J Mathew told TOI.

If these seem farfetched, then confirmation of heightened terror activities in the state came from none other than Chief Minister VS Achutanandan.

Delivering the Independence Day speech on August 15, VS said terrorists were working “covertly and visibly’ ‘ in Kerala, something which security analysts have been saying for years.

They point to the increasing Wahabi influence in the northern districts like Malappuram and Kozhikode where radical groups with steady support from countries like Saudi Arabia are making their voices heard.

In Malappuram for instance, Chekanoor Moulavi, an Islamist reformist scholar was abducted from his home and murdered by some persons following “ideological differences ” in 1993. The main accused is still believed to be hiding in the Gulf. In Malappuram , Palakkad and Thrissur, at least four murders in the late 1990s were traced to the banned Al Umma. The frightening fact is all of them were from another community and were alleged to have had relations with Muslim women. Then there was the ISS. Though defunct , its founder Abdul Nasser Madani acquitted in the Coimbatore blasts case, later floated the People’s Democratic Party. The latest to make its presence is the National Democratic Front (NDF) which claims to be a socio-cultural outfit.

Another lethal factor has been the influx of hawala money. In July 2007, Home Minister Kodiyeri Balakrishnan told the state assembly that hawala transactions worth an estimated Rs 10,000 crore were taking place in Kerala every year. Intelligence agencies say a good chunk of this goes to spreading fanaticism.

Pavagadh training ground for terrorists
Vadodara: The rugged forests of Pavagadh hill are a haven for trekkers, rock-climbers and camping enthusiasts. But these dense forests are in the focus after Gujarat police stated that a training camp was organized here for SIMI activists of the Safdar Nagori faction. The camp, held for three days in January, provided SIMI activists training in rock climbing, jumping over hurdles, using ropes to jump from one place to another and a series of similar exercises. Nagori, the SIMI general secretary now in a Mumbai prison after being arrested near Indore, was present during the training camp and motivated the group of 15. It is believed that four youths from Vadodara – Mohammed Usman Mohammed Anis Agarbattiwala, Imran Ibrahim Sheikh, Iqbal Kasim Sheikh and Qayamuddin alias Abdul Kadir Kapadiya – attended the camp.

While Usman, Imran and Iqbal have been arrested, Kapadiya is still at large. He has been missing ever since his name cropped up as a SIMI operative after the arrests of 13 persons including Nagori from Indore. “Nagori motivated those present at the camp. Besides physical training, the youths were also given training in firearms and escaping from a spot after committing a crime,” said Vadodara police commissioner Rakesh Asthana. Sajid Mansoori from Surat, who was staying in Vadodara when the camp was held, is also believed to have played a key role in organizing the camp. Mansoori, who has been arrested, came to Vadodara in 2004 and stayed here till June 25, 2008. Asthana said the youths had used tents and camped in the jungle for three days. “The camp was also attended by activists from outside the state. It was held after the SIMI camp in Ernakulam in Kerala in which 30 to 35 youths had participated. Persons from Vadodara, Ahmedabad and Surat had also attended the Ernakulam camp,” said Asthana. TNN

SIMI has morphed into Indian Mujahideen: police

SIMI has morphed into Indian Mujahideen: police
Sat, Aug 16 08:16 PM

Ahmedabad, Aug 16 (IANS) The ‘Indian Mujahideen’, an outfit that claimed the responsibility for the July 26 terror bombings, is just a front of the banned Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI), the Gujarat police said Saturday.

‘You remove S and I from ‘SIMI’ and you get IM, for Indian Mujahideen,’ Gujarat Director general of Police P.C. Pande told reporters here.

‘Indian Mujaheedin is only a second version of SIMI,’ he said, after announcing that the banned outfit was behind the serial bombings here.

Pande said the front organisation was put up after the SIMI was banned.

Ahemdabad’s Joint Commissioner of Police Ashish Bhatia said: ‘After the arrest of Safdar Nagori, SIMI got divided into two groups – hardliners and moderates. The hardliner group is Indian Mujahideen.’

SIMI did legwork for LeT, Jaish, HuJI

SIMI did legwork for LeT, Jaish, HuJI
28 Mar 2008, 0154 hrs IST, Pradeep Thakur,TNN

NEW DELHI: The arrest of SIMI’s national general secretary Safdar Nagori from Indore is a major breakthrough for the security agencies banking on his interrogation to help unravel the mystery surrounding many of the recent terror attacks.

Senior intelligence officials say Nagori was responsible for setting up terrorist sleeper cells for Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba by reorganizing SIMI’s cadre, driven underground by police pressure, in the northern and southern states.

He enjoyed good working relationship with other Pakistan and Bangladesh-based terror outfits such as Jaish-e-Mohammed and Harkat-ul-Jihad Islami (HuJI) though officials rule out his direct linkage with the Pakistan intelligence agency ISI.

The upwardly mobile cadres of SIMI, many of them trained engineers, doctors and IT professionals, have been arranging logistical support to the terrorists, lodging Pakistani and Bangladeshi terrorists of LeT, Jaish and HuJI in Maharashtra, Karnataka, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, UP, Bihar and West Bengal where the outfit(SIMI) now has a significant presence.

SIMI activists also acted as guides to jehadis coming to India from Pakistan and Bangladesh. Nagori, on the run since 2001 when SIMI was banned and its headquarters sealed at Zakir Nagar in Delhi, swears by Osama bin Laden and finds jehad as the only means to achieve the goals of a pan-Islamic nation.

SIMI’s links had appeared in the July 11, 2006 serial blasts in suburban trains in Mumbai and the serial blasts in Malegaon on September 8 the same year. Over 250 were killed and at least 800 injured in the Mumbai and Malegaon serial blasts. The probe trail in the Shramjeevi Express blasts of July 28, 2005, in which 12 persons were killed, had also put the needle of suspicion on the outfit.

Sources said SIMI inducted many IT professionals and engineers in its ranks and spread the reach of the organisation in the southern states. Despite being under the scanner of the security agencies, Nagori had reorganised the banned outfit in a corporatised manner creating several wings within the outfit such as the publicity wing, weapon procurement and financing branches.

Nagori’s arrest in Madhya Pradesh indicates that he was making inroads in the BJP-ruled state. Its leaders had gathered in the state earlier also, at Ujjain. His deputies were, meanwhile, active in other states organising regular meetings and sending new recruits for arms training in camps in J&K and at other makeshift sites elsewhere in the country.

The arrest of a software engineer, Yahya Kammakutty, by the Karnataka police last month had revealed SIMI’s rising clout among educated Muslim youths in southern states of Karnataka and Kerala. Among the half-a-dozen persons arrested in Karnataka for suspected SIMI links, at least four were found to be medical students and some IT professionals.

SIMI’s major funding source is suspected to be charities in Saudi Arabia. Interrogation of Yahya had revealed that he had made several trips to the Middle-East. These visits were probably made in connection with raising funds. The banned outfit operates through several front organisations registered as NGOs and has several publications, printed regularly, professing its ideology.

(pradeep.thakur@timesgroup.com)

Muslim moderates and extremists work as a team

The Misnomer of Radical Islam: America’s Security Blunder
Martel Sobieskey, September 25, 2007   http://www.newmediajournal.us

There is the erroneous assertion that Radical Islam is not connected with mainstream (moderate) Islam in any way, that the religion of Islam has been “hijacked by a few extremists” that the vast majority of Muslims do not agree with the Islamofascists. Such thinking is a terrible error and a grave threat to America’s national security, especially in this age of nuclear terrorism.

So what is Radical Islam and what should it be properly named? Radical Islam is actually the Islamic Military. The so-called radicals are not a fringe element; they are fully supported by the worldwide Islamic community (Ummah). If they were a fringe element, they would have been defeated long ago. The fight rages on because of strong support from the moderates both covertly and overtly. This means the Islamic Military (wrongly labeled radicals) is intimately connected with today’s moderate Muslims who we have mistakenly labeled as innocent bystanders.

Today’s Moderate Muslims are not innocent bystanders. They provide the base of operations which makes it possible for the Islamic Military to continue their terrorist operations. Hate America, demands to replace constitution with the Koran, and outbursts for Sharia law are preached openly from nearly every Mosque in America under the guise of freedom of speech and religion. Freedom of speech and religion has morphed into a weaponized tool of Islamic psychological warfare which is defeating America’s will to protect her national security. Any American who says Islam is less than perfect may become the victim of an unfair lawsuit by a “moderate” Muslim organization.

Why can one be so certain about this fact? The answer is the Koran. The Koran fuses together both moderates and their military. No Muslim dares to contradict the Koran because the penalty is — death and loss of personal salvation. The moderate Muslims of every nation, including those in America fully support their Islamic military because worldwide conquest is the primary religious duty of all Muslims. Fellow Americans, if you believe that your local Muslims are not secretly harboring in their hearts an agenda for the conquest of America by Islam then you are dead wrong and understand nothing about the Koran.

Moderate Muslims may not carry weapons and murder innocent people hands on, but they play the role of “wolves in sheep’s clothing”. Moderate Muslims use two primary strategies to make conquest for Islam.

The first is dawa, which is influence peddling, “wining and dining” and manipulation. You make conquest by “pleasing” your opponent, “buttering them up” — bribery and back room dealings are common place. There is a “ton” of Muslim oil money buying preferential treatment for Islam in America.

The second is taqiyya, which is outright deception and lying. Deception and lying to infidels as a strategy of conquest is one of Islam’s most valued “weapons”, a precedent set by the prophet Mohammed himself. Americans hear this deception everyday with proclamations that “Islam is a religion of peace.” This phrase is an excellent example of successful psychological warfare which has caused Americans to let down their guard, and made us very vulnerable to future terrorist attacks, even possible nuclear attacks as several experts have pointed out.

Recent history proves that the “so called peaceful Muslims” work as a team with their Islamic Military. They immigrate to a country touting what peaceful law abiding citizens they are, establish themselves, build mosques, increase their numbers and “bingo” terrorist acts start occurring in the host country. Do the attacks in Spain, England, France, Thailand, Bali, the Philippines, Holland, Sweden and the USA ring any bells here? All these attacks have been preceded by the establishment of moderate mosque communities which in turn became footholds from which the Islamic military could launch their terrorist attacks. The larger the percentage of Muslims that occupy a country the greater the havoc they wreak. The situation is directly proportional. Reducing the percentage of Muslims that dwell in the host country is the most effect way of stopping terrorism. Western governments must evaluate this fact very seriously if they wish to win the war against Islamofascism long term.

Have we Americans become gullible fools? As long as we fail to deal aggressively and comprehensively with the intimate Koranic connection between the moderate Muslims and their Islamic military we can never stop the terrorist attacks. Have you ever wondered why, so numerous the complaints worldwide, that Muslims are not assimilating into their host nation? It is because they are not there to assimilate — they are there to conqueror the host country for Islam as their Koran requires. Fellow Americans please read the Koran for your self. Don’t take my word on it. You will learn first hand that anyone who tells you that Islam is a religion of peace is insulting your intelligence. The Penguin Classic edition, The Koran, translated by the Arab Scholar N. J. Dawood is a well respected version having sold over a million copies worldwide.

The best description of the symbiotic Koranic relationship between the moderates and their military comes from the Muslims themselves. They have a saying, “the poisonous fish swim in the sea”. The “poisonous fish” are the militants and the “sea” is the moderate mosque community. For example, for their 9/11 operation, the Islamic Military (poisonous fish) used the Al Farouq mosque in New York as the “sea” from which they “swam” to pulverize the trade towers. The next poisonous fish may be swimming from the sea of your local Mosque community with a nuclear explosion.

Wake up Americans we are not fighting with bows and arrows anymore. We must take aggressive preventative measures to stop the Islamic military’s “euphoric” obsession to make a nuclear attack on American soil.

It is a great mistake to continue calling the Islamic military radicals because the term “radicals” has blinded us to think that the moderates are not in cahoots with their Islamic Military. In so doing we have violated the primary dictum of warfare which is to know and understand one’s enemy.

Consequently, we have failed to understand that the Islam of Osama Bin Laden is main stream Islam – not a radical fringe. Osama Bin Laden is one of the generals of the Islamic military which is fully supported by the worldwide community of moderate Muslims, including American Muslims. Both moderate Muslims and their military have the same goal which is the Islamic conquest of the entire world — this is the primary religious duty of all Muslims as required by the Koran. Americans desperately need to understand this fact if they wish to protect their country from great harm.

Martel Sobieskey has 35 plus years of research experience in the field of religion and its relationship to warfare. He is greatly alarmed that American politicians, educators, and security personnel fail to understand the deep seated religious conditioning inherent in Muslims. A religious conditioning that surpasses rational thought yielding a chronic Jihad “mental syndrome and pathology” This explains the large number of highly educated and credentialed persons such as engineers, medical doctors and others amongst the Islamo-terrorists.

Suspected mastermind of Ahdmedabad blasts was employed by Wipro

Suspected mastermind of Ahd blasts was employed by Wipro
16 Aug, 2008, PTI

MUMBAI : One of the suspected masterminds in the Ahmedabad serial blasts was a former employee with an information technology firm who quit his job to join the banned Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI), police officials said here on Saturday.

The suspect, an engineer by education, was employed in a direct sales agency of information technology firm Wipro in Mumbai between 1996 and 1998, Anti-Terrorism Squad sources said here.

“In 1998 he quit his job to join SIMI and was involved in their activities since then,” the sources said but refused to divulge his name.

However, the suspect allegedly a resident of Mumbai was last seen in Bangalore some time back following which his whereabouts are being traced, they said.

ATS chief Hemant Karkare refused to comment on the matter.

“We would not like to share the information presently since it could hamper investigations,” he said.

According to the Gujarat police, the suspect was involved with alleged blasts mastermind Mufti Abu Bashir in planning the serial blasts in Ahmedabad on July 26 which claimed 55 lives.

They also suspect that he may have been involved in sending the threatening email from the alleged terror group Indian Mujahideen a few minutes prior to the blasts.

The Internet Protocol (IP) address from which the email was sent traced to an American national’s internet connection in Navi Mumbai. At least eight persons, including American national Ken Haywood, have undergone scientific tests like brain mapping and polygraph tests in the matter.