SIMI activists to be produced in Court on Aug 17

Bangalore, Aug 17: Nine SIMI activists who were arrested on Saturday, Aug 16 in connection with the Ahmedabad serial blasts will be presented in court on Sunday, Aug 17. The alleged mastermind Mufti Abu Bashir, a SIMI activist from UP, has been brought to Ahmedabad. The Gujarat Police earlier said that Mufti Abh Bashar and others arrested were behind the serial blast in Ahmedabad on July 26.

Police claim that Bashir is the mastermind behind the Ahmedabad serial blasts. Police say he's a SIMI member who was picked up from Azamgarh in Uttar Pradesh on Friday, Aug 15. According to the police, in December last year Bashir and others attended a training camp held in the forests of Ernakulam in Kerala. Cops claim that the camp held by SIMI was to give training on assembling explosives

The camp held by the banned organisation SIMI trained Bashir and many others like him to assemble explosives. Then in April, in Ahmedabad Bashar and another man hired a flat and frequent meetings began to plan the blasts. Mobile phones and cycles were bought from Ahmedabad and Baroda. And finally on July 26, the group gave final touches to the bombs and planted them all over Ahmedabad.

Nine others suspects, all in the age group of 20-25, from Ahmedabad and Vadodara have also been arrested. As per the reports more arrests are likely in South Indian states like Kerala and Karnataka. A major development was the involvement of a former Wipro employee based in Mumbai

"He used to work in Wipro and he along with Mufti Abu Bashir are the masterminds behind the blasts," said Ashish Bhatia, Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime). The police also clarified that Indian Mujahideen, the group that e-mailed media houses just minutes before the blasts claiming responsibility is essentially part of the SIMI network.

They say that in 2005 the hardline faction of the SIMI split and formed the Indian Mujahideen. "SIMI split into two parts, one was moderate, the other hardliner and the hardliners started the Indian Mujahideen," added Ashish Bhatia. And one of the main reasons that the 29 Surat bombs didn't go off was because a completely different set of timers.

"In Ahmedabad, mechanical clocks were used and in Surat integrated chips were used but the chips did not work due to some technical fault," said P C Pande, DGP, Gujarat. The Gujarat Police also say that these arrests will lead them to vital clues about other recent blasts in the country.

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