SIMI leader with alleged IM links arrested in Jkhand

Likely to be questioned over the twin Hyderabad blasts

The NIA has arrested a leader of banned Student Islamic Movement of India SIMI,Manzer Imam,from Ranchi for allegedly taking part in a terror training camp at Wagamon,Kerala,in 2007.

The 28-year-old was produced before the court of First Class Judicial Magistrate M C Narain in Ranchi on Monday. The court was satisfied that Imam has no cases against him in Jharkhand and sent him on a transit remand to Ernakulam,Kerala.

The NIA officials left with Imam by late afternoon. They are expected to make a stopover in Delhi on their way to Kerala. Imam will be produced before a Kerala court,which had issued an arrest warrant against him.

Ranchi SSP Saket Kumar Singh said Imam was picked up from near the Central Institute of Psychiatry in Kanke on Sunday evening. A team of about 10 NIA officials from Hyderabad had come to arrest him. My men were not part of the team. We came into the picture later,assisting with his health check-ups and producing him in court, he said.

Imam is the 24th in the list of 40 suspects who attended the Wagamon terror training camp. The case was handed over to the NIA in 2010. Security agencies have been looking for him and three others,including Indian Mujahideen IM operative Abdul Subhan Qureshi alias Taqueer. Qureshi is an accused in the 2008 Ahmedabad blasts case.

Imam is believed to have worked closely with the IM top leadership,alleged to be behind the Hyderabad blasts. The NIA will quiz Imam in connection with the case.

During its probe,the NIA had learnt that SIMI cadre led by Qureshi and SIMI secretary general Safdar Nagori already arrested attended the camp. They had trained the new recruits in handling computers,explosives and weapons.

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In January 2011,the NIA had filed a chargesheet against 30 terror suspects,including Nagori and Kayamuddin Kapadia. The NIA officials said that one of the suspects,Abdul Sattar alias Mansoor of Kerala,has fled to the Gulf. A red corner notice has been issued against him by the Interpol on their request.

Meanwhile,SSP Singh said a team of Gujarat Police was in Ranchi about six months ago in a bid to arrest Imam. Our information is that he is wanted in about a dozen cases in Gujarat. But they could not find him. He was reported to be in Gumla, he said.

With ENS Delhi