The Students Islamic Movement of India (Simi), a banned outfit, has been acting as the 'backbone' for militant organisations providing them with critical logistical support to carry out terror strikes in the country.
This has been revealed by top Lashkar-e-Tayeeba commander Abu Jundal during his interrogation by Central intelligence agencies. Jundal claimed that Simi has had a role in virtually all major terror attacks executed in the country in the last few years as the local support and recee of the targets was done by the Simi cadres only.
Jundal disclosed that in the initial phase he too had been associated with Simi in Maharashtra. The LeT operative said unlike the common perception that Simi had links with only Lashkar, it has had close association with other terrorist groups like Jaish-e-Mohammed and Hizbul Mujahideen.
The Simi has also had dealings with Pakistan’s counter intelligence agency, the ISI, intelligence sources said.
Jundal, sources added, went onto reveal that without Simi’s local support it would have been very difficult for terrorist organisations to execute their plans. Jundal also claimed that majority of Simi’s cadre got absorbed in to the Indian Mujahideen once Simi was banned by the home ministry.
Since Simi has a formidable network running into thousands of cadre particularly in urban centres, it was the ISI that decided to use them for providing logistical support to terror modules after the outfit was banned.
“Jundal has given details as to how Simi has helped in arranging the hideouts during the July 2011 triple bombings in Mumbai, Pune Best Bakery blast, Jama Masjid attack and some more important incidents,” a senior special cell official remarked.
In fact, Jundal told the interrogation team that Simi’s network of sleeper cells speared across the country was so formidable that it would be almost impossible for the security agencies to break it.
“What is worrying that most of these sleeper cells are in cities or urban areas,” the official added.
Giving more insight into the functioning of Simi, Jundal disclosed that the outfit operates in an extremely secretive manner and even he was not aware of the entire network or contacts.