Pak ultras behind Kerala SIMI camp: NIA

The National Investigation Agency (MIA) has found that Pakistani ultras were behind the SIMI terror training camp held at Vagamon in Kerala’s Idukki district in December, 2007. The agency has concluded that the camp was planned by and held under the guidance of Pak terrorist Masood Azhar.

According to the agency, the camp, controlled by Lashkar-e-Tayyeba and Jaish-e-Muhammad, was held for imparting training in handling of weapons including AK 47 rifles and explosives. The camp was also meant for giving training to terror recruits in guerilla warfare, says the NIA.

The Union Home Ministry has given clearance to the NIA to prosecute the 30 accused in the case. All of them have been charged with waging war against the nation, conspiracy, inciting religious hatred, possession of explosives and indulging in terror acts. The agency will file the chargesheet in the case at the Special CBI court – 2 (NIA Court) in Kochi next week.

The NIA has found that the funds for the terror camp had come from Pakistan. It has also found that Keralite CAM Basheer, a hardcore terrorist presently based in Saudi Arabia, was in overall charge of the camp. The goal of the camp was to prepare the recruits for surprise attacks all over the country with the intention of creating insecurity.

Apart from imparting training in suicide attacks and weapons handling, the camp had also taught the recruits techniques of springing surprise attacks specific spots and escaping unhurt. According to the NIA, Masood Azhar and Basheer had delivered their messages to the participants in the camp through video recordings.

The chargesheet prepared by the NIA says that the Vagamon camp was held with the specific goal of disintegrating the nation. Despite the finding that funding, strategies and programme for the camp had come from Pakistan, no Pakistani has been listed as accused reportedly because it could cause problems to the case when it comes up for trial.

The first accused in the case is PA Shaduli of Irattupetta of Kerala’s Kottayam district, presently in prison for his role in the Ahmedabad bombings of 2008. The other accused include Shaduli’s brother PA Shibili and several hardcore extremists from within and outside Kerala who were involved in many other terror attacks.

The Vagamon camp of SIMI, managed by Indian Mujahiddin, was the practical springboard of several of the terror strikes that took place in the country in 2008 while SIMI’s clandestine meeting at Panayikkulam near Kochi on August 15, 2006 was where the idea of these strikes was born. Shaduli himself is the first accused in the case of the Panayikkulam camp also.

The other accused in the Vagamon SIMI camp case include Keralites Muhammad Ansar Nadvi and Abdul Sattar, SIMI’s master terror man Safdar Hussein Nagori from Madhya Pradesh, Usman, Ameel Parvesh from Ujjain and Muhammad Sajid, Gayasuddin, Qutubdin Sheikh, Arif, Abdul Razik, Imran Sheikh and Sharafuddin Kapadia from Gujarat.

The Vagamon SIMI camp was one of the six terror cases the NIA has been investigating in Kerala. The other cases pertained to the recruitment of young Keralites into the LeT network for training in Kashmir, the two cases of the twin blasts at Kozhikode in 2006, the burning of a Tamil Nadu bus at Kalamassery off Kochi in 2005 and the Panayikkulam camp of SIMI.

Responses