New Delhi: Continuing its crackdown on Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI), Chhattisgarh Police, on Monday, arrested seven members of the banned outfit in connection with the Patna and Bodh Gaya blasts. The arrests were made after raids in Patna and Ranchi revealed SIMI links with Indian Mujahideen terrorists blamed for the blasts.
The National Investigative Aagency questioned SIMI activist Umer Sidhhiqui who had revealed that two of the accused stayed with him till November 9 in Raipur. The NIA has also released sketches and announced cash awards on 5 accused in the blasts.
The police on Sunday said five more members of the banned outfit have been arrested from the different locations of the capital in the past two days.
These fresh arrests have been made to facilitate ongoing investigations, which have established that the five SIMI operatives provided logistics, financial and ideological support to run the banned organisation, police had said on Sunday.
The five suspected SIMI activists, who were taken into custody for interrogation earlier, have been arrested, Civil Lines City Superintendent of Police (CSP) Rakesh Bhatt had told reporters on Sunday evening.
The alleged SIMI operatives have been identified as Sheikh Azijullah (36), a resident of Pandri, Moinuddin Mashiuddin Qureshi (37) of Rajatalab, Sheikh Habibullah (33) of Pandri, Hayat Noor Khan alias Raju Mistry (45) of Gudhiyari and Roshan Ghulam Sheikh (32) of Ashok Nagar, he said.
Moinuddin had given his house at Sanjay Nagar to Abdullah, an accused in the recent Patna blast case and his alleged accomplices on rent, he said.
During investigation, it came to fore that Sheikh Habibullah, Hayat Khan and Roshan had links with the banned organisation since 1999 and they had also allegedly attended a meeting of the terror outfit held at Barnawapara forests, around 100 kms away from the Chhattisgarh state capital of Raipur.
Investigators also recovered SIMI membership forms from arrested SIMI operatives, he said.
All of them were booked under provisions of the Prevention of Unlawful Activities Act, 1968, he said.
Earlier, the police had arrested autodriver Abdul Wahid Khan (54) of Pandri and Umer Sidhhiqui (35), who runs a coaching class in Raja Talab, for their alleged SIMI links.
(With additional information from PTI)
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