Indian Mujahideen = SIMI

The Gujarat Police announced on August 16, 2008, the identification andarrests of 10 activists of the Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) inconnection with the serial blasts in Ahmedabad on July 26, 2008. Nine of thearrests were made in Ahmedabad and Vadodara in Gujarat and the tenth arrest oftheir leader Mufti Abu Bashir was made with the co-operation of the UttarPradesh police in Azamgarh in UP. 

According to details given by a team of senior Gujarat police officers at aspecial press conference, the arrested persons formed the hard core of a largergroup of SIMI activists, who had planned and carried out the blasts in Ahmedabad,under the name of Indian Mujahideen. They also said that while they havedefinitively established the involvement of these persons and their associatesnot yet arrested in the blasts in Gujarat, they have some indications that someof these persons might have also been involved in the serial blasts of May inJaipur and in the blasts of November, 2007, in UP. 

Further investigation is in progress. All the persons arrested so far and thesuspects not yet arrested are Indians. All the arrested persons are in their20s.A collation of available details is given below:

Abdul Rashid also known as Mufti Abu Bashir Ilahi, aged 26
Believed by the Police to be the mastermind of the serial blasts inAhmedabad on July 26, 2008, and the planned, but failed blasts in Surat the nextday. Studied Arabic in the Deoband seminary in Uttar Pradesh. Comes from a lowermiddle class family of Azamgarh (village Beenapara) in Uttar Pradesh. Father, aparalytic, is unemployed. Mother a housewife. Family dependent on his earningsas a teacher of the Arabic language in a madrasa in Hyderabad called the JamaitUl Sheikh Al Maududi located at Pahadisharif in Hyderabad. The madrasa had beenstarted by another native of Azamgarh called Maulana Abdul Aleem Islahi. 

Abu Bashir has four brothers and one sister. Two of his brothers are workingin Delhi and Mumbai. The remaining two brothers and sister are studying in amadrasa in Azamgarh. Abu Bashir worked for two years in the Hyderabad madrasatill January 2007. According to the Hyderabad police, he left the madrasa forAzamgarh in January 2007. According to his father, he returned to his villageonly about a month ago saying the madrasa was closed for vacation. 

For nearly 18 months, he was neither in the madrasa nor in his village. Someof this period between March 2008 and July 2008, he had spent in Ahmedabad.According to the Gujarat Police, he was present in Ahmedabad on the day of theblasts.It is not yet known where he was from January, 2007, to March 2008, whenhe allegedly took over as the head of the SIMI network after the March 2008arrest of Safdar Nagori, the General Secretary of the SIMI, and his brotherKarimuddin by the Police of Indore in Madhya Pradesh.

Bashir came into contact with the SIMI when he was teaching in the madrasa inHyderabad and became its active member. Maulana Abdul Aleem Islahi is anactivist and known sympathiser of the SIMI. His son Mohtasin Billa was also inthe SIMI. While examining the cell phone records of Ahmedabad city in the pastfew months before the blasts, the Crime Branch of the Gujarat Police identifiedfive numbers which were receiving only incoming calls made from public calloffices located mostly at a place called Juhapura in Ahmedabad. 

Investigation indicated that during his stay in Ahmedabad Abu Bashir hadpurchased five SIM cards in the names of local residents. Zahid Sheikh wasmaking the calls to Abu Bashir at these numbers. These numbers went silent afterthe blasts. Abu Bashir and Abdul Subban Quereshi were staying in a rented houseat a place called Vatva in Ahmedabad. This house had been hired with theassistance of Zahid Shaikh and Sajid Mansuri.

Imran Ibrahim Sheikh, aged 23 
Did a course in human rights and journalism in the MS University of Vadodara.Arrested in Vadodara. Attended training camps in Kerala and Pavagadh nearVadodara under an assumed name. The Police zeroed in on him after a scrutiny ofhis mobile phone records. 

During his interrogation, he denied any role in the blasts and mentioned thename of Zahid Sheikh. Imran Sheikh and Sajid Mansuri had visited Jaipur on May13, 2008, when the serial blasts there had taken place. The improvised explosivedevices (IEDs) used in Ahmedabad and Surat were assembled at three differentplaces--in the house at Vatva in Ahmedabad in which Abu Bashir was staying, inImran Sheikh's house in Vadodara and in another house in Kalpur in Ahmedabad. Itis not known who was staying in the Kalpur house.

Zahid Sheikh, a resident of Juhapura in Ahmedabad
The interrogation of Imran Sheikh led to him. He allegedly confessed that hehad planted bombs on cycles in Ahemdabad. He named at least three people whowere involved in the purchase of the bicycles and delivery of the IEDs. ZahidSheikh was under surveillance by the Ahmedabad police even before the blasts. Hehad also attended the training camps in Kerala and Gujarat under an assumedname. He had provided local logistics support for a team of nine -- five fromMadhya Pradesh, two from Maharashtra and two from Karnataka -- which had come toAhmedabad. The team held meetings in the Bapunagar area of Ahmedabad in April,another one in a different city in May and the final one on July 20 at Zahid'sresidence. Zahid's confession led to the arrest of Yunus Mansuri, ShanshuddinSheikh, Arif Kadri, Gyasuddin from Ahmedabad and Imran, Usman Agarbattiwala,Iqbal Sheikh and Sajid Mansuri from Vadodara.

Usman Agarbattiwala, aged 24
A B.Com graduate from MS University of Vadodara. Attended training camps inKerala and Pavagadh near Vadodara under an assumed name. His laptop wasallegedly used for programming the timer chips for the IEDs planted in Surat,which failed to explode.

Sajid Mansuri, a former zonal secretary of the SIMI in Gujarat
Sajid Mansuri, who was absconding since 2001, was arrested from Bharuchafter the blasts.

Abdul Subban Qureshi
An explosive expert who holds a diploma in electronic engineering. Heallegedly procured ammonium nitrate and timers for the Ahmedabad operation andhad them stored in a safe house in Bharuch, He had attended the meetings of theSIMI to plan the serial blasts. The arrested suspects have claimed that it wasAbdul Subban Qureshi who drafted the three e-mails claiming responsibility forthe blasts of November,2007, in UP, May in Jaipur and July in Ahmedabad onbehalf of  "Indian Mujahideen". He forwarded the drafts to Mufti Bashir.Qureshi is absconding.

Adnan also known as Hafiz Mullah
A young computer engineer and a prominent SIMI organiser for South India. He wasarrested along with some other SIMI leaders in Indore in March 2008. He hadnamed Abu Bashir as responsible for SIMI activities in Gujarat.

Kamaruddin Nagori, brother of Safdar Nagori, was in charge oforganising training camps
He was assisted by Adnan, Shibly Peedical Abdul and his brother Shaduli. 

The first camp was in Karnataka between April and September, 2007, the secondin Kerala in October-November,2007, the third in Madhya Pradesh in December,2007, and the fourth in Gujarat in January 2008. 

The plans for the series of blasts in different cities were drawn up duringthe training camp in the jungles of Waghamon near Alua in Kerala where 40recruits from different states were put through a commando course. This camp wasaddressed by both Safdar Nagori and his brother. This camp was followed by theblasts in three cities of UP in November, 2007. 

The plan for the blasts in Gujarat was drawn up at the Gujarat training campheld in Pavagadh in the Vadodara area. Many of those arrested by the GujaratPolice after the blasts had attended this camp. 

After the arrest of the Nagori brothers and Adnan by the Indore Police, AbuBashir, assisted by Abdul Subban Quereshi and one Kayamuddin of Vadodara, tookover the responsibility for organising the reprisal attacks planned in Gujarat.Initially, they though of either a plane hijacking or a kidnapping to demand therelease of those arrested in Indore. They gave up these ideas and decided on theblasts.

Others arrested by the Gujarat Police are Yunus Mansuri, Shamsuddin Sheikh, ArifKadri, Gyasuddin, and Iqbal Sheikh . Their particulars are not available. 

B. Raman is Additional Secretary (retd), Cabinet Secretariat, Govt. ofIndia, New Delhi, and, presently, Director, Institute For Topical Studies,Chennai.