New Delhi ,March 28: After changing its name to Wahadat-e-Islami (WeI), the banned Students’ Islamic Movement of India (Simi) is now preparing for fresh terror attacks in India with the help of paragliders.
New intelligence inputs reveal that the group, involved in the Jaipur serial blasts as well as several other attacks across the country, is mainly targeting Muslim-dominated areas and recruiting unemployed Muslim youth to carry out terror strikes in India. Its new recruits are being trained by handlers of the Lashkar-e-Tayyaba (LeT) in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, intelligence sources say.The sources claimed that top Lashkar commanders had acquired paragliding equipment and were providing training both to its own men as well as WeI members at its camps near Rawalpindi, Peshawar and Multan. A majority of those being trained are WeI members, the sources said,adding that similar training was being provided at the LeT’s camps located at Muzaffarabad in PoK.
There are also confirmed reports that LeT has asked WeI members to strengthen their modules in Muslim-dominated areas of Gujarat and Rajasthan. These inputs have been passed on to the state governments concerned, the sources said.
"Available inputs suggest that WeI members have become active in cities like Jaipur, Kota, Sawai Madhopur, Ajmer, Jodhpur, Boondi and Bara of Rajasthan. There are also reports that WeI members have been instructed by the LeT and Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence to pay a handsome amount to new recruits and ‘overground workers’ at the time of recruitment," the sources added.
"There are confirmed reports that WeI members are again becoming active in Modasa town and other areas of Sabarkantha district in Gujarat. Modasa is known for a strong base of Simi members (earlier)," the sources said. It may be recalled that Rafique Dadu, a resident of Modasa and member of the erstwhile Simi, was arrested with 123 other activists of the organisation in January 2001 while holding a secret meeting following the ban imposed on it. Dadu was one of the first Muslims in India, barring those from Kashmir, to undergo arms training in Pakistan.
Pramod Kumar