Terror 8216;syllabus8217; seized from SIMI men

Even as seven more activists of Students Islamic Movement of India have been arrested from Ujjain and Indore, more startling disclosures have come to light.

Even as seven more activists of Students Islamic Movement of India SIMI have been arrested from Ujjain and Indore, more startling disclosures have come to light. SIMI was not just planning vengeful terror strikes against BJP leaders; it had full-fledged literature to run a thorough training programme in terrorism. A well-documented 8220;syllabus8221; in terrorism has been recovered from the SIMI leaders arrested last week.

Outside of Jammu and Kashmir, the banned SIMI is the only outfit in India to have in place a literature-based military training. The 8220;syllabus8221;, which holds the key to train militant cadres for targeting top BJP leaders like Advani and Modi among others, is backed with a strong ideological content. It has several modules and levels of training. These go into details of military support needed to 8220;back up8221; the ideological substance in the SIMI training literature. The literature recovered explains usage of fire weapons from close range besides ways of staying in hiding and ambushing targets. Investigators are poring over the contents of these terror-training modules to unearth SIMI8217;s functioning.

The 8220;syllabus8221; calls for an Islamic state freed from western cultural influences 8212; SIMI has been advocating a fight against social and moral degeneration of society that makes it un-Islamic. However, SIMI leaders claim to have turned to more 8220;militant8221; means after the Babri Masjid demolition and post-Godhra riots, which according to them were aimed at annihilation of Muslims in India.

Interrogation of SIMI chief Safdar Nagori and the other 12 arrested has revealed that they planned to target 10 top BJP and VHP leaders associated with these two events.

Investigation is also on to find out the funding model for the training programme of its militant cadre. So far, SIMI has emerged as quite self-sufficient and its cadres are reasonably looked after. It has developed not only south India as its major hub but has already spread out a massive network across the country with cadres all over.

Aware of its international network, SIMI has even decided to omit India from its organisational name to assume a global Islamic identity as Student Islamic Movement SIM.

Meanwhile, the Madhya Pradesh police have arrested seven more of its activists from Ujjain and Indore on the charge of providing assistance to their former chief Safdar Nagori and 12 other top leaders arrested last week.

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Ujjain SP Manmeet Narang claimed five of the men were held on Monday while they were holding a meeting to chalk their course of action following the arrest of the main leaders. They were held from the courtyard of a house at Unhel village, a hub of SIMI activities. They were produced before a court in Ujjain and remanded in police custody till April 7.

The other two were arrested from a house in Indore in a raid on Sunday. Indore SP Anshuman Yadav said the duo were not only providing money to the banned organisation but other logistical support as well.