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Even as the Delhi High Court rejected
the bail application of Shahid Badr Salhi, president of the banned Students'
Islamic Movement of India (SIMI), the organisation's national secretary
Safdar Nagori kept his date with Maulana Fazlur Rehman, the visiting secretary
general of Pakistan's Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam.
Badr had been lodged in Tihar jail
for about two years on charges of sedition and waging war against the country.
However, Nagori, a co-accused and the mastermind behind the conspiracy
to balkanise India, is still at large.
Nagori has been named in an First Information Report (FIR) No 532/2001, under Section 3 of the Unlawful Activities Act, registered at New Friends Colony police station in South Delhi. He has been declared a Proclaimed Offender in the case.
Despite being on the "most-wanted list," Nagori who was named with Badr as a co-accused has managed to hoodwink the Delhi Police and central agencies as well. Informed sources said Nagori has changed his appearance. He has shaved off his trademark beard and frequents the Jamia area in South district, they said. Nagori was recently sighted at the Deoband Seminary in Western Uttar Pradesh, where he interacted with Maulana Fazlur Rehman. The Jamiat chief, who is believed to have fathered many terrorist outfits, was in India on an invitation of the Jamiat-e-Ulema-Hind.
Nagori is trying to revive SIMI cadres under the umbrella of a different outfit, the sources added. Maulana Rehman's patronage to extreme Islamic groups, including the Al Qaeda of Osama Bin Laden is well known. The Maulana draws inspiration from the orthodox Wahabi School of Islam, which has its headquarters in Deoband in the Muzzafarnagar district of Western Uttar Pradesh. During his visit, the Maulana held long interactions with the mullahs of the Wahabi school. It is during this visit, sources said, that Maulana Rehman is believed to have interacted with Nagori. Justice J D Kapoor of the Delhi High Court, while dismissing Badr's bail plea, ruled that granting relief to the accused at this stage would be prejudicial to the security and safety of the society. The court accepted the prosecution's contention on Badr's bail, who faces trial for several grave offences.
Badr was arrested from the SIMI office in the Zakir Nagar area under the jurisdiction of New Friends Colony police station on charges of waging war against the nation, disturbing communal harmony, creating enmity and showing scant disregard to the Constitution of India.
The inability of the agencies to nab Nagori has been most baffling. He was allowed to address mediapersons at least a day after SIMI was banned and then allowed to slip into anonymity. He is credited with building up SIMI, whose hand in terrorist activities led into banning the organisation.
The Delhi Police had arrested Shahid Badr along with Mohammad Khalid, Irfan Ahmed and Saif Nachan, the three other office-bearers of the banned organisation. SIMI's office at C-151/9, Zakir Nagar in South Delhi was also sealed. The police recovered some incriminating documents and audio tapes containing inflammatory speeches deriding the Indian government and the Constitution. Badr was also wanted in a case registered against him in the Bahraich Kotwali police station in Uttar Pradesh, under sections 124A/153/298/120B. While Badr, who is believed to be just the titular head of the body, was promptly arrested, the mainstay of the organisation Nagori has been enjoying freedom all along.
Badr, who has been charged with sedition and inciting communal disharmony in Uttar Pradesh, was wanted for making `highly provocative' speeches at a local conference of the organisation in Bahraich district of Uttar Pradesh. Investigation by the central intelligencies had unravelled the nefarious nexus between SIMI and the various terrorist outfits. The operatives of the Pakistan sponsored terrorist organisation Hizb-ul-Mujahideen, were found to be imparting training to SIMI cadres.
The banned radical had links with terrorist mastermind Osama Bin Laden's Al Qaeda group charged by Washington with being responsible for the September 11 terrorist attacks in the United States. Simi has links with Al-Qaeda and other terrorist organisations in the Gulf, Middle East, the US, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal. SIMI's officials had also been in regular touch with the leader of Palestinian militant outfit Hamas, which has been propagating an Islamic order. Nagori had met the Hamas leader who had visited India clandestinely in 2001.
Delhi Police officers, when contacted
on Saturday about Safdar Nagori's disappearance, said efforts were definitely
made to nab him but he appeared to have slipped to some unknown destination.
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