SIMI denies involvement in Mumbai blasts

New Delhi, July 13 (UNI) The banned Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) today denied any involvement in the Mumbai serial blasts.

Former SIMI president Shahid Badr Falahi said the organisation had no hand in the explosions which rocked the commercial capital on Tuesday, leaving more than 180 people dead and several hundreds injured.

''The blasts have killed many innocent persons and I would be as happy as any one to see the guilty punished,'' he told reporters outside the Delhi High Court.

''There is a pattern in the timing of the blasts...the SIMI has been banned thrice. The case is heard at a tribunal and whenever the hearings appear to be concluding, a blast takes place only to embroil the organisation in a fresh controversy,'' he alleged.

When the hearing on the ban on SIMI was nearing its conclusion in 2001, the Sabarmati express coaches were burnt, he said, adding that the Ghatkopar blast also occurred in 2003 when the hearing on second ban on SIMI appeared to be concluding.

''And now, that hearing on third ban imposed on SIMI in February 2006 may conclude on August 8, terror has struck,'' he alleged.

He also criticised the Government and the media for pointing at the ''hand of SIMI in this gruesome act without any basis or proof''.

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