SIMI camp called for Jihad to ‘liberate’ Kashmir: NIA

The NIA has said that the camp held by banned Islamist outfit SIMI at Panayikkulam off Aluva near Kochi on the Independence Day of 2006 had planned to hold Jihad to “liberate” Kashmir. The agency on Thursday filed its chargesheet in the case in the Special CBI Court -2 (NIA Court) in Kochi.

The agency named PA Shaduli of Irattupetta, Kottayam as first of the 17 accused in the case. Though there were 18 participants in the camp, the NIA submitted application in the court seeking declaration of Rashid Moulvi, 16th accused in the case registered by the Kerala Police, as approver.

As per the chargesheet, five SIMI leaders who spoke at the camp had called for Jihad for the liberation of Kashmir. They had also asked the participants to work against security legislations like TADA, POTA and NSA, describing them as laws formulated for hunting down Muslims, the agency said. It had examined 89 witnesses and 69 documents before preparing the chargesheet.

Though all the 17 accused had been charged for unlawful assembly and conspiracy, 12 of them were exempted from the charge of anti-national activities on the ground that they had participated without knowing its real intention. The second to fifth accused in the case are Abdul Rasik, Ansar, Nizamuddin and Shamas alias Shammi respectively.

First accused Shaduli is brother of Shibily and both are accused in several terror cases including the Ahmedabad blasts. Shaduli, arrested from Indore, is said to be lodged at the Sabarmati Prison in Ahmedabad presently. The two brothers were also said to have been involved in the organization of a SIMI training camp at Vagamon, Idukki in 2007.

Several pamphlets bearing the seal of SIMI and copies of “Mass Resistance in Kashmir”, a book published by Islamabad’s Islamic Study Centre from London from Abdul Rasik who had spoken at the camp on the subject, “Role of Muslim Leaders in India’s Struggle for Independence”.

The local police had taken into custody all the 18 from the venue on the day of the camp but they had charged cases only against three of them. However, all the 18 were later released on bail sparking off a controversy over the alleged role of certain top police officials in this.

The NIA had taken over the probe into the SIMI camp in December, 2009 just when the Joint Investigation Team of the Kerala Police was preparing to submit its chargesheet in the case. This is the third terror case in Kerala in which the NIA has so far completed investigations.

Meanwhile, the Special CBI Court -2 on Thursday accepted the chargesheet NIA had filed on December 17 in the case related to the burning of a Tamil Nadu bus at Kalamassery off Kochi. The court had earlier returned the chargesheet citing certain technical problems in some of the documents attached with it.

The court ordered to send summons to ten of the 13 accused in the case to appear before it on February 21. Three of the accused in the case are yet to be arrested. Thadiyantavide Nazeer, known as LeT’s South India commander and prime accused in the Bangalore bombings case, is the first accused in this case

Sufiya, wife of PDP chairman and 31st accused in the Bangalore bombings case, is the tenth accused in the case of bus-burning, which according to the NIA was committed on September 9, 2005 to put pressure on Tamil Nadu Government to release Madani from the prison where he was lodged in connection with the Coimbatore serial blasts case.

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