Absconding SIMI Terrorist under arrest

SIMI camp accused remanded
PNS | Kochi

The Special CBI Court – 2 (NIA court) in Kochi on Monday remanded Nissar Ibrahim (26), 17th accused in the terror case pertaining to a camp outlawed Islamist outfit SIMI had held at Panayikkulam, Aluva near Kochi on August 15, 2006, in judicial custody for 14 days. Nissar was arrested at the Kochi international airport at Nedumbassery near here on Sunday morning.

The NIA, which had taken over the probe into the case from the Kerala Police, had issued lookout notice for Nissar, who was absconding for the past one-and-a-half years. The Immigration officials at the airport identified him during a routine examination of documents after he had landed at the airport from Sharjah by an Air India flight. He was handed over to the NIA later.

Nissar was one of the 13 SIMI men who were let off by the Kerala Police after being taken into custody from the site of the camp itself. Though all the 18 participants in the camp, said to be the first incident of Islamist terror activity in Kerala, were taken into custody by the police, they charged cases only against five of them.

The police had held that the others were merely people who had reached the venue to listen to “religious discourse”. There were also allegations that a senior police official had intervened to secure the release of the SIMI operatives. The NIA took over the probe after the terror angle and the anti-national character of the camp became evident.

The Central agency, which had submitted the chargesheet in the case in the NIA court in Kochi on December 30 last, had found that the camp had given a call to wage Jihad to “liberate” Kashmir. The agency said that the speakers at the camp had also asked the participants to work against legislations like TADA, POTA and NSA.

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