13 members of banned Islamic students' group arrested in India

Mar 27, 2008, 10:47 GMT

New Delhi - Police in India's central Madhya Pradesh state have arrested 13 members of an outlawed Islamic students group suspected of having terrorist links, news reports said Thursday.

Safdar Nagori, a general secretary of the banned Students' Islamic Movement of India (SIMI), was among those arrested during the raids on Wednesday and Thursday in and near the city of Indore about 160 kilometres south-west of state capital Bhopal, PTI news agency reported citing police sources.

Indian intelligence agencies have claimed that the SIMI has links with Islamic militant groups based in Pakistan and that it was involved in the serial bomb blasts on Mumbai's rail network that killed over 180 commuters in July, 2007. SIMI has denied the allegations. The Indian government banned the organization in 2002.

Top leaders of the SIMI, including unit heads of Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra states had been arrested in the raids, PTI reported.

Weapons, money, computers and incendiary literature had been seized from the SIMI activists who were arrested from different parts of Indore and neighbouring Dhar district, the sources were quoted as saying.

'Investigations are on to the SIMI's plans to expand its network in the state ... This is a big achievement for the police,' Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan was quoted as saying.