Author: Anubhuti Vishnoi
Publication: The Indian Express
Date: March 31, 2008
URL: http://www.indianexpress.com/story/290367.html
Introduction: Teams from six states are questioning
13 SIMI activists
Activists of the Students Islamic Movement
of India (SIMI), arrested by the Madhya Pradesh police last Thursday, have
told police that they planned to target top BJP leaders, including L K Advani
and Narendra Modi, because they believed these leaders were linked to the
destruction of the Babri Masjid and the post-Godhra riots.
Police claimed these SIMI activists had told
them they were even training militant cadres for the attacks. "Those
interrogated have said that training camps and militant cadres were being
organised to target some top leaders... while they are being evasive about
names, they said their targets were leaders associated with the Babri Masjid
case and the recent Gujarat riots. The Samjhauta Express blast connection
is also in the realm of possibility," Indore SP Anshuman Yadav told The
Indian Express.
The 13 arrested SIMI activists have told their
interrogators that apart from Advani and Modi, others being targeted were
Uma Bharti, VHP leaders Ashok Singhal and Praveen Togadia. The SIMI activists,
including their leader Safdar Nagori, said the decision to target these leaders
was taken because no action was taken, despite several inquiry commissions,
against leaders involved in the Babri Masjid demolition and Gujarat riots.
The 13 activists are being interrogated jointly
by the Intelligence Bureau and police units of at least six states - teams
from Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Delhi and Haryana have all landed
- at a secure interrogation centre in Indore.
Yadav said that while SIMI's association with
the Samjhauta train blasts is not yet established, it is in the "realm
of high probability".
"The IB and Haryana police are interrogating
them on the issue. Though there is strong suspicion of their involvement,
no linkages have been established as yet," he said.
Indore has a connection to the Samjhauta Express
blasts case - much of the material used to create the lethal suitcase bombs
were bought from the city's Kothari market. While investigators had traced
the terror trail to the city last year, even identifying the shops from where
articles like suitcases, plastic bottles, battery were purchased, there has
been no movement forward ever since. At that time, Indore police had even
ruled out any SIMI connection to the blasts.
"At that time there was nothing to establish
the SIMI connection because all these people, who have been arrested now,
had been at large for years. With their arrest, things change considerably,"
Yadav said.
Police believe identification by the Indore
shopkeepers of any of those arrested will give them a new lead.
