Karnataka's first known terror group Deendar Anjuman has found a safe home in Pak

Driving a wedge in the society and creating communal clashes in a bid to de-stablise the economy of a country has been a major activity of every terror group. On Tuesday, Sheikh Amir Ali, an alleged operative of the Deendar Anjuman, the group behind the serial Church blasts in Karnataka, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh in the year 2000, was arrested by the Bengaluru Police.

The Deendar Anjuman which was founded in 1924 and banned in 2000 is a forgotten outfit today. The group which was first to carry out a terror strike in Karnataka operates under the names of Anjuman Hizbullah and Jamaat-e-Hizbul Mujahideen in Mardan and Peshawar respectively.

An Indian Islamic State

The Deendar Anjuman was founded by Hazrat Moulana Deendar Channabasaveshwara Siddiqui in 1924 at Bellampet Kalaburgi, Karnataka. While this outfit remained low key for several years, it came into prominence following 13 blasts at places of worship in Andhra Pradesh, Goa and Karnataka between May and July 2000.

The investigations that were conducted revealed that it was one Syed Zia-ul Hassan who had masterminded the attacks. He then migrated to Peshawar in Pakistan. Intelligence Bureau reports would suggest that Hassan had floated a terrorist group called the Jamaat-e-Hizbul Mujahideen in Pakistan.

The group's ideology states that Islam is the only true global religion. It states that all religions either begin with Islam or later merge into it. Over the years it was found that the Deendar Anjuman had felt that it must convert the whole of India into an Islamic State, an ideology that was later adopted by the Indian Mujahideen.

Ties with Pakistan

After Hassan left for Pakistan he floated the Jamaat-e-Hizbul Mujahideen. While this was the violent wing of the outfit, the ideological wing was known as the Anjuman Hizbullah.

This group is close to several terror and radical groups in Pakistan. Indian officials say that this group is being stage-managed by the ISI. It also has several branches in Saudi Arabia and one statistic indicates that there are around 150 branches.

The links with the ISI date back to the late 1990s. Investigations into the church blasts had revealed that several of its operatives including Khalid Zaman had travelled to Pakistan to receive training from the ISI.

While the blasts were planned to drive a wedge between the people in India, it was also found that the outfit had bigger plans for the future. The aim was not to kill people but to cause extensive damage, police say.

They had on their radar telecommunication towers, electricity grids and also oil refineries.

Investigations also showed that the outfit would undertake peace conferences annually. However, it was learnt that this was just a smokescreen and the real motive was to spread terror and violence.

Further it was also found that this group had vandalised statues of Dr BR Ambedkar in a bid to create tension.

Officials say that investigations had revealed that the group had grown so close to the ISI that it had openly told its members to work for the welfare of Pakistan. The proximity to Pakistan was also seen when 40 people of this outfit had been arrested following the blasts in 2000.

Out of the 40 arrested, 7 were Pakistan nationals.

OneIndia News