145;The Tauqeer I knew couldn146;t do this146;

Shahid Badr Falahi is a former national president of the Students Islamic Movement of India SIMI, the organization with which the Indian Mujahideen is believed to have deep fraternal ties.

8220;I didn8217;t know these boys or their families but they seem to be educated and from good families. My heart says they were not involved in the Delhi serial bombings,8221; says Falahi, who takes his last name from the neighbouring madrasa, Jamiatul Falah, where he studied.

8220;But I knew Abu Bashar. I met him at a seminar at the Madarsatul Islah in Beenapara. I remember him because he was the youngest speaker.8221;Bashar is currently in custody for his alleged involvement in the Gujarat blasts. He studied at the Beenapara madrasa.

Falahi also remembers his association with Safdar Nagori, a former general secretary of the SIMI, and Abdus Subhan Qureshi or Tauqeer.

8220;Tauqeer was in SIMI. He was the editor of the English edition of our monthly magazine, Islamic Movement. I had appointed him editor. Woh ek nek aur sharif ladka tha. I have a feeling he8217;s already in police custody. The police only highlight someone8217;s name when they already have him or when they are sure he cannot run away.8221;

Alleged master bombmaker Tauqeer is currently one of India8217;s most wanted men. Nagori was arrested from a SIMI meeting in Indore in March.

Falahi shrugs off talk about his differences with Nagori 8212; believed to be a hardliner who disagreed with Falahi8217;s more moderate line. 8220;I don8217;t understand this. Pehle main garam tha, ab main naram hoon? If I was a moderate, why did the government put me in prison for 30 months?8221; he asks.

Falahi was arrested in Delhi on September 27, 2001, the day SIMI was banned. He was released on April 7, 2004. 8220;The charge against me was that I made an inflammatory speech in Delhi. The police said Nagori and Shahbaz Hussain, who were present there, escaped. Shahbaz was in Lucknow all these years running a cyber cafeacute;, but they could find him only now.8221;

Falahi says the Nagori and Tauqeer he once knew could not have carried out the serial blasts. 8220;If they have changed over the years, I can8217;t say. Carry out investigations and if you find anyone guilty, punish them. But right now these are just allegations.

8220;I hear this talk about Nagori being a hardliner, but I don8217;t know. In those days he was quite open-minded. In fact, he had a love marriage. We came to know about it only later. A love marriage is considered un-Islamic. 8220;Maine unme Islam ki malumaat kam paayee I found his knowledge of Islam to be limited. He couldn8217;t read or write Urdu and knew only Hindi.8221;

Falahi defends SIMI energetically. 8220;SIMI8217;s ideology has not changed. The government8217;s agenda has changed. The BJP government wanted to follow an anti-minority agenda. And the Congress government has continued it. Nothing has been proved against SIMI. And why should you ban an organisation if you find only one or two people involved in something? Dara Singh was a member of the RSS and he killed Graham Staines in Orissa. Nathuram Godse killed Gandhiji. But was the RSS banned?8221;

He denies the Indian Mujahideen is a SIMI offshoot. 8220;SIMI ceased to exist after the ban and the Indian Mujahideen is just a name floated by the agencies. Is naam ke zariye woh Mussalman naujawanon ka katl, halal kar rahe hain. Tell me, why would we carry out blasts at a time when we are so close to winning the legal battle? Do we want to spoil our own case?

8220;All I am saying is, don8217;t rush to blame Muslims for every blast. Widen your scope of inquiry. Ek aankh aur aadhe dimag se dekhoge toh sach kabhi nahin dikhega If you see with one eye and a half-closed mind, you8217;ll never be able to see the truth,8221; he says.