Southern jihad: How Deendar Anjuman gave birth to it in Karnataka

The death of Mohammad Taufeeq, a Telangana resident has opened up a huge debate on the radicalisation that is taking place in South India. The fact that only Kashmiris and Pakistanis wage jihad in Kashmir no longer holds true.

Back in 2010, a Kerala resident, Shakeel Mohammad was killed in an encounter at Lolab in North Kashmir. Taufeeq's case is the second instance in which a non-Kashmiri was found to be waging jihad in Kashmir. What is more important is that in both these cases, the persons belonged to South India.

If one goes back to track the rise of jihad and radicalisation in South India, it could be said that it all began in Karnataka with the rise of the Deendar Anjuman. A violent groups which carried out religious hits, the rise and fall of this outfit were in fact very quick. However the trail that it left behind following its downfall lingers on till this day.

It began in the year 2000 when the Deendar Anjuman carried out a series of blasts. The group carried out two attacks. The first blast was at the St Annes Church in Gulbarga on June 8 2000 and the next day a bomb exploded at the St Peter Paul Church at JJ Nagar in Bengaluru.

The Deendar Anjuman members also attempted at planting another bomb but the bomb accidentally went off at the Magadi road killing two of its members Zakir and Siddiqui.

The police had filed a chargesheet against 29 persons in connection with this attack. In the first ever conviction for a case of terror the special court convicted 22 accused in the case. The High Court on December 17 2014 upheld the convictions.

The birth of the Lashkar-e-Tayiba in South:

This was a major attack that took place on December 28 2005. It was a Fidayeen strike masterminded by the Lashkar-e-Tayiba. The intent was to kill the delegates at the Indian Institute of Sciences.

The police were able to ascertain the Lashkar link to the attack and it was the first time that this outfit had decided to target a South Indian city.

The Bengaluru police stated in its chargesheet that the two prime accused in the case were Sabauddin Ahmed and Abu Hamza. There were five others too named in the case. The trial court convicted six persons.

The Kerala connect:

The serial blasts in Bengaluru in 2008 saw 9 bombs exploding. All were low in intensity. In the incident one person died and several others were injured.

The investigations revealed that a fringe group from Kerala led by T Nasir claiming to be HuJI operative carried out the attack. However further investigations revealed that he belonged to no particular outfit.

The investigations also led to the arrest of Abdul Nasar Madani a controversial politician from Kerala. The trial is underway and the police have chargesheeted 31 persons in this case.

The rise of the Indian Mujahideen:

The Chinnaswamy stadium blasts of April 2010 was an eye opener. The Indian Mujahideen which was born in Karnataka had returned to the state.

This blast saw the deadly Yasin Bhatkal plant one of the bombs before making an escape to Chickmagalur. The attack was aimed at announcing their come back and hence they decided to target the stadium when an IPL game was about to resume.

The police said there were three bombs in all. The third one was said to be the deadliest one and was timed to strike at the crowd as they were entering the stadium. However this bomb was spotted in time by the agencies and diffused.

Al-Ummah is born:

The Al-Ummah is a group that targets Hindus and is based out of Tamil Nadu. This group had a score to settle with the BJP is what the investigators point out.

On April 17th 2013 just as the state was readying for the assembly elections, a group of men belonging to the Al-Ummah planted a bomb away from the BJP office in Malleshwaram. 16 persons were injured in the attack.

The police chargesheet names 20 persons all hailing from Tamil Nadu to be behind this blast. The prime accused in this incident is Abu Backer Siddiqui a 48 year old operative of the Al-Ummah.

OneIndia News