The National Investigation Agency on Thursday linked the outlawed Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) to the dreaded Pakistan-based Islamic terror outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba.

The NIA claimed the link between the two in a chargesheet filed against 18 activists of SIMI in the designated court in Kochi. The central investigating agency filed the chargesheet in connection with a secret meeting held by the SIMI activists in Panayuikkulam near Kochi on August 15, 2006. The case which was allegedly derailed by the Kerala police had attracted national attention forcing the government to hand it over to the NIA after a TOI report in August 2008, in the aftermath of the Jaipur and Bangalore blasts.

The case had its origin in the arrest of 5 SIMI men, who were part of the meeting held at the Happy Auditorium in Panayikkulam. Though a total of 18 SIMI men were rounded up from the venue, Kerala police mysteriously registered a case against only 5 and let off the rest. The FIR registered under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act named five accused – Shaduli, Ansar Moulavi, Nizamuddin, Abdul Rafeeq and Shamas.

But even after two years, the police did not file a chargesheet. What raised fears was that two of the accused – Ansar Moulavi and Shaduli – were picked up by the Rajasthan police for masterminding the Jaipur blasts which killed about 80 people. Another accused was detained by the Karnataka cops after the July 2008 serial blasts.

It also came to light later that Shaduli’s brother Shibly Peediackal Abdul was SIMI’s key operative in South India. Wanted in the 2006 Mumbai serial blasts, he too was arrested in Madhya Pradesh in March 2008 in what was a major crackdown on the outfit’s leadership.

Ansar Moulavi and Shaduli also attended a secret training camp held by SIMI in the tourist haven of Vagamon in Kerala’s Idukki district in December 2007, a year after they were arrested in Panayikkulam and released on bail.

The then Rural SP of Aluva was alleged to have been instrumental in sabotaging the case. However, it is not known if the NIA has indicted him too. An MLA of the ruling Left front is said to have even called on the SIMI men in jail a few days after their arrest to convey his `sympathy’.

Source : The Times of India