Radicalised dozens of Muslims, wanted for 19 years, Delhi Police nets SIMI’s most elusive operative

New Delhi, Dec 07: Wanted for 19 years, Abdullah Danish an operative of the Students Islamic Movement of India was arrested by the Delhi Police from Zakir Nagar in southeast Delhi.

Danish was wanted in a sedition case and under the provisions of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act. Danish had been declared a proclaimed offender in 2002 by a court after he remained untraced. He and several others had fled the SIMI headquarters in Jamia Nagar during a raid in 2001.

DCP Special Cell, Pramod Kushwaha said that he had allegedly radicalised Indian Mujahideen terrorists, Abdus Subhan Qureshi and Abu Bashar. It may be recalled that the two were key players in the IM and were behind the Ahmedabad serial blasts of 2008.

Danish indoctrinated dozens of Muslims over the past 25 years. He was one of the most elusive members of the SIMI. The DCP said that they got inputs that Danish was trying to radicalise Muslim youth and was also mobilising them against the CAA and NRC.

He has also been accused of propagating hardcore radical ideology to create disharmony among the religious groups.

Kushwaha also said that he was falsely propagating atrocities being committed upon Muslims by the government by using fake videos. He completed his MA in Arabic from the Aligarh Muslim University in 1985. At Aligarh, which is the epicentre of SIMI's activities, he came in contact with some operatives, following which he was radicalised. He then joined the SIMI, attended weekly programmes and radicalised Muslim youth to join the outfit.

The then SIMI president Ashrag Jari made him the chief editor of SIMI's Hindi magazine, Islamic Movement in the year 1988. He wrote several provocative articles. During interrogation, Danish said that Bashar had stayed in his house at Aligarh after the Ahmedabad blasts of 2008. Subhan ran camps at Kerala and Karnataka after he motivated him to do so.