Is SIMI funding al-Qaeda operations in India?

New Delhi, Dec 22: Is the Students Islamic Movement of India funding the al-Qaeda in the Sub Continent (AQIS)? The busting of the al-Qaeda module in India has once again shifted the focus back to the Students Islamic Movement of India.

Intelligence Bureau officials had always stated that the al-Qaeda would look to derive support from the SIMI in India. The alleged financial transactions from SIMI members in India to Afghanistan are under the scanner.

Last week three persons had been arrested for an alleged link to the al-Qaeda. Two were arrested in Uttar Pradesh while one was picked up from Odisha.

The police in Delhi and Odisha are now ascertaining if these members who are alleged to have set up a module for the al-Qaeda in the Sub-Continent or the AQIS had any links with the SIMI.

The police have also intensified the search for three SIMI operatives who have been missing since 2013 ever since they escaped from the Khandwa jail in Madhya Pradesh.

Is SIMI raising funds:

In October 2013, seven operatives of the SIMI had escaped from the Khandwa jail in Madhya Pradesh. Two were killed recently in an encounter at Telangana while two others had been arrested. However, there is no trace of the other three and hunt for these persons involved in various cases is still on.

After the escape, these persons had robbed two banks and also orchestrated a blast at Bijnor in Uttar Pradesh. The question is what have these persons done with the money that they looted.

If one looks at the NIA probe into the Patna blasts of 2013 in which Narendra Modi was a target, it was found that prior to the incident members of the SIMI were sending money to Afghanistan which landed with the al-Qaeda.

The relationship between the SIMI and the al-Qaeda is not new. Several operatives of the SIMI had pledged their support to the al-Qaeda and also expressed their willingness to help them in Afghanistan.

The investigators would now look for possible links between the SIMI and the recently busted modules in UP and Odisha.

OneIndia News