SIMI activists’ hand in Chennai Central blasts confirmed

CHENNAI: In a major breakthrough in the investigation into the twin blasts that rocked Chennai Central railway station on May 1 last year, Telangana police DGP Anurag Sharma told on Monday that “the two SIMI operatives, Md Aijajuddeen and Md Aslam alias Bilal, who were killed in police encounter in Nalgonda district on Saturday, were suspected to be involved in Bangalore-Guwahati Express blast at Chennai Central railway station”. He said the counter terror units of various states and national probe agencies were in Nalgonda to probe the case.

A woman passenger Swati, 22, a software engineer hailing from Guntur in Andhra Pradesh, had died in the twin blasts in two compartments of the train when it was stationed at Chennai Central. The two SIMI activists, who have now been killed, had escaped from Khandwa jail in Madhya Pradesh along with four others in 2013. One was arrested immediately after the jail break. The other three – Amjad Khan, Zakir Hussain and Mehboob Guddu – are still at large. They all belong to Abu Faisal gang and were together in the Indian Mujahideen. Faisal masterminded their escape from jail.

An anti-terror squad (ATS) team from Madhya Pradesh identified the two killed in Saturday’s encounter as SIMI activists. Following this, a team from Tamil Nadu CBCID left for Telangana to gather more details about their activities. A CBCID officer said, “At least four passengers who travelled in Bengaluru-Guwahati Express train had seen the SIMI suspects and they later confirmed the identity of the SIMI activists Aslam and Aijajuddeen from their photographs procured from Khandwa jail.”

Fearing more such terror strikes from SIMI activists, Union home minister Rajnath Singh had recently written to Tamil Nadu chief minister O Panneerselvam asking details about unsolved terror cases in the state. Similar letters were sent to Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka chief ministers also.

A police team had found the two SIMI activists travelling in a bus from Hyderabad to Vijayawada during a vehicle check held at Suryapet hi-tech bus stop in Nalgonda district in the wee hours on April 2. They opened fire at police, killing a police constable Lingaiah and a home guard, Mahesh. A police circle inspector, Mogilaiah and a civilian, Dorababu, also suffered bullet injuries. The gang managed to escape.

Police finally traced them to Janakipuram in Nalgonda district on April 4, but a police constable, K Nagaraju, died as the duo opened fire again. An inspector, Bala Ganga Reddy, and a sub-inspector, D Siddaiah, were also injured in the exchange of fire which ended with the killing of the two ultras.

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Source:Timesofindia