PUNE: Anti-terrorism squads (ATS) of the Mumbai and Gujarat police have arrested two more activists of the banned Students Islamic Movement of India (Simi), including a dentist, from Pune and Bijapur (Karnataka) in connection with the July 26 Ahmedabad serial blasts.
The arrests are part of a coordinated effort by police forces of different states to crack down on terror operatives across the country after the Ahmedabad serial blasts. Several members of Simi and the Indian Mujahideen, believed to be an offshoot of Simi, have been arrested so far.
Early on Thursday morning, officials of the Mumbai ATS arrested Feroz Mehboob Pathan (32), suspected to be an active Simi member and part of the recently busted sleeper module, from the Ghorpade Peth area of Pune. Two others were detained but not arrested.
A team of the Gujarat ATS arrested dentist Mohammed Salim Honali (31) from Bijapur in Karnataka on Tuesday. Honali used to work with the MA Rangoonwala College of Dental Sciences and Research Centre at the Azam Campus in Pune till May this year before he was laid off.
The college is run by the Maharashtra Cosmopolitan Education (MCE) Society, founded by prominent builder-cum-educationist PA Inamdar.
The Gujarat ATS team looking for him had initially visited Pune but later traced him to Bijapur. ATS officials suspect that Honali did not only play a role in the recent Ahmedabad blasts but was also brainwashing other youth to bring them into the radical fold. He is a member of various radical centres in the city.
Meanwhile, Inamdar confirmed that Honali worked as a dentist with the MA Rangoonwala College for 15 months. "In May, the college removed excess staff and Honali was among those laid off," he said.
Pune ATS officials suspect that Feroz, a resident of Mecca Towers in Ghorpade Peth, may also be involved in the recent Ahmedabad blasts.
Police inspector Peter Lobo of the Pune ATS confirmed that Feroz was picked up along with two others by the Mumbai ATS and was later produced before a Mumbai court, which remanded him in police custody till August 29.
ATS officials said jehadi literature was recovered from the four suspects, including Feroz, two of whom have been "only detained".
According to Lobo, Feroz worked as screen painter in Ghorpade Peth and was an active member of SIMI. "He has been booked earlier in as many as nine cases pertaining to suspected SIMI activities," Lobo said.
ATS officials said Feroz was in jail for one year after the police had invoked charges under the Maharashtra Prevention of Dangerous Activities (MPDA) Act against him. Feroz, who is married, had completed his second year of Bachelors of Arts from a Camp-based education institute in Pune.
Security agencies last week arrested three Pune-based activists of the banned Simi - Ayaz Ayub Khan, Nadeem Shaikh and Bilal Kazgi - and claimed that they were part of a sleeper cell. Following the arrests, agency officials had said they were looking for nine other suspects.
