Initial reports point finger at SIMI

Preliminary investigations into the Mumbai blasts point the needle of suspicion towards the banned Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI)...

Preliminary investigations into the Mumbai blasts point the needle of suspicion towards the banned Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) with a linkage to the seizure of huge quantity of explosives in Thane this month.

Home Ministry sources say the improvised explosive device (IED) used in the twin blasts could be part of the SIMI stockpile, a portion of which was stored at Nagla Bunder area in Thane. On August 5, the Mumbai police had seized 185 kg of ammonium nitrate (an explosive precursor), around 800 detonators and 35 gelatin sticks at a quarry in Thane. Officials say that even RDX was part of the seizure.

Inputs from Mumbai to the Home Ministry claim that the Thane explosives were meant for SIMI and there were indications they were planning something big. The fact is that Ammonium Nitrate has been used in the serial blasts in Mumbai between December 2, 2002, to the last explosion at Ghatkopar on July 28, 2003.

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However, the kind of explosive used will become clear after Col Sanjay Agarwal, Commanding Officer, National Bomb Data Centre, and his team examine the evidence. Col Agarwal, who is with the National Security Guards (NSG), and his team flew to Mumbai tonight.

According to the Home Ministry, SIMI has seven to nine modules (each module has 10-14 people) in Mumbai and its suburbs. The Islamic fundamentalist group has ideological affiliation to Lashkar-e-Toiba terrorist group as they both draw from Al Hadees. In fact, Dr Jalis Ansari of Ahal-e-Hadees and Saquib Nachan, a former SIMI secretary, are currently serving sentence for causing at least 50 low intensity explosions in Mumbai.

While the Ministry does not see any larger SIMI strategy in the blasts, intelligence agencies do not rule out the incident as a reaction to the Gujarat riots. Significantly, Zaveri Bazaar in Mumba Devi, where the second blast took place, has a large concentration of Gujaratis. Investigations are also on to confirm whether the car explosion at the Gateway of India took place accidentally as the fundamentalists could be just transporting the explosives to a more crowded place.

Incidentally, the Home Ministry has been keeping its fingers crossed this month following general intelligence alerts about terrorist strike outside Kashmir between Independence Day and the Inter-State Council meeting in Srinagar this week. But there has been no specific intelligence on this account.

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While the Mumbai police is now trying to dig out the links between SIMI and the underworld, the Home Ministry has no corroborative evidence to substantiate this link. Further, till late evening, the intelligence agencies could not detect any Kashmiri terrorist involvement in the Mumbai blasts.