State police discover people named in a list of SIMI sympathisers have disappeared without a trace

After Pune blast, No trace of SIMI supporters in state

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After Pune blast, No trace of SIMI supporters in state

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State police discover people named in a list of SIMI sympathisersu00a0 have disappeared without a trace

Working on inputs from the Intelligence Bureau (IB) after Saturday's Pune blast, the anti-terrorist cell set out to track down sympathisers of the banned Students' Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) and the lesser-known Islamic Students' Congregation (ISC) across the state. Only, it has drawn a blank so far.

Police sources said the IB had passed on a list of people believed to be close to SIMI and ISC to the state intelligence bureau on Sunday, hours after the Pune terror attack. Police teams launched a massive search operation in the city and the rest of the state. The ongoing exercise involves 24 inspector-level officers assisted by subordinate staff.

The scene of the bomb blast at Madiwala bus stop after one of the nine explosions in the city on July 25, 2008

The exercise was launched because the police wanted to check if the SIMI and ISC sympathisers had links with the Indian Mujahideen, an outfit suspected of involvement in the Pune blast.

It is learnt that police teams visited various areas in the city, among them Shivajinager and KG Halli, during the day.

The police in Mangalore are also on the job, as the founder members of the Indian Mujahideen, Riyaz Bhatkal and his brother Iqbal Bhatkal, believed to have masterminded the blast at Pune's German Bakery, hail from the district.

Riyaz, a native of Bhatkal, a coastal town in Uttara Kannada, is the most wanted terrorist in the Karnataka Police list. After the spate of blasts across the country over the past couple of years, the Central intelligence agencies would also like to get their hands on him.

Bhatkal is also said to be indirectly involved in the 2008 Bangalore blasts. The nine bomb blasts across the city on July 25, 2008, had resulted in one casualty.

At a media briefing in Mangalore, Western Range IGP and Mangalore Police Commissioner Gopal Hosur said he suspected SIMI's involvement in the Pune blasts. But in Bangalore, S N Sidramappa, DCP Crime, said, "I don't know anything about this."

The names the Bhatkal brothers came up after the July 11, 2006, blasts in Mumbai, but they had already fled Karnataka by the time this happened.

While the two brothers are on the run, their family has also gone underground, said the police.

It is learnt that the Bhatkal brothers went to Uttar Pradesh, where they recruited youth from Azamgarh to send them to Pakistan for training. The Bhatkals are accused of hatching blast conspiracies and other activities ranging from recruiting youth for terrorist acts and training them to selecting targets and even supplying the RDX for bombs.