All thirteen arrested members of the Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI), including one wanted by Karnataka and Mumbai police in connection with terror activities have been remanded to police custody till April 11 by an Indore court here today.
Dhar (Madhya Pradesh), Mar 28 : All thirteen arrested members of the Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI), including one wanted by Karnataka and Mumbai police in connection with terror activities have been remanded to police custody till April 11 by an Indore court here today.
They were produced in the court of Chief Judicial Magistrate (CJM) S S Thakur under tight security.
The SIMI activists are being interrogated for further leads and some arms have been seized from the spot of the arrests.
According to ATS Chief Hemant Karkare, three of the 13 arrested SIMI leaders are wanted in connection of a case under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) filed in Maharashtra.
"The names of the three had cropped up during the interrogation of (July 11 serial train blasts accused) Ehtesham Siddiqui. Our team had gone to Ujjain in 2006 searching for them but did not find them," he said.
A team of Maharashtra's Anti- Terrorism Squad (ATS) is soon leaving for Madhya Pradesh to further interrogate three alleged members of the banned outfit SIMI.
Karkare added that names of Shibly Abdul, Safdar Nagori and one more, had come up during the interrogation.
But he further added that there is no evidence yet to confirm their involvement in the July 11 train blasts that killed 187 people besides injuring more than 700.
"Siddiqui was arrested for being a SIMI member and later his role in the blasts came to light after which he was booked in that case," he said.
Police sources said security agencies had been trailing Nagori for a while and managed to track down the SIMI men, following a tip-off from intelligence agencies.
The crackdown against SIMI comes just a week after Minister of State for Home, Sriprakash Jaiswal told the Lok Sabha that the banned outfit and its associates were planning serial blasts in the country and the Centre has extended its ban imposed on SIMI for another two years.
Nagori is alleged to have established links with the operatives of Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), Pakistan's external intelligence agency, and other Islamist fundamentalist leaders in a bid to revive SIMI cadres under the umbrella of a different outfit.
ANI