With the sleuths of the Anti-terrorist Squad (ATS), who were now also joined by a team of National Investigation Agency (NIA), failed to get any concrete lead about whereabouts of the half a dozen hard-core members of banned terror outfit, Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI),who slipped after blast in Bijnore last week, senior officers are now looking into the negligence of the cops of the local Intelligence Unit (lIU), who failed to took notice when a strong terror network has been active in Western UP for past several months.
``We will definitely look into the conduct of the sleuths of the lIU in Bijnore as probe now pointed that not just half a dozen of SIMI activists, were engaged in anti-national activities but they were also having logical support from others, still the cops failed to took notice of their activities”, said a senior officer, who summoned a report in this regard before initiating action against the lIU staff. Sources said that the ATS, engaged in the investigation along with Bijnore police, though arrested Raees, his son Abdullah, and Husna, who is reportedly real sister of one of the absconding IM conduit, for giving logistic support to the militants, but they still failed to get any clue about the absconding SIMI activists, even when they reportedly talked to the above held accused minutes before they were held on Thursday. Sources also said that the ATS suspected that militants must have taken shelter in fields or jungles of Umari under Kotwali Dehat police station of Bijnore, as the location of the mobile used by them to talk to the above three held persons, has been traced in the same locality. ATS along with local police already launched a combing operation in the area but so far they failed to get any further success.
The ATS team already released the picture of all the six absconding accused, whose identity has been made with the help the CCTV footage as well with the help of jail authorities of Khandwa district at Madhya Pradesh, from where they slipped from custody in last year. Sources also confirmed that one of the injured SIMI operative, identified as Mehboob aka Guddi Malik, has been traced by the sleuths of the ATS, though they so far denied of the development.
It may be noted that on last Saturday and Sunday, local authorities at Bijnore along with sleuths of the ATS had conducted massive search operation in all the suspected hide-outs and had also taken help of local persons to identify the culprits after showing pictures of SIMI activists. Sources also confirmed that with the help of Mehboob and also with the pictures which they received from Khandwa district jail and matched with the youths whose identity were captured in the CCTVs, the identity of other SIMI conduits has been established as Amzad, Aslam, Ejajudeen, Abu Faisal and Zakir Hussain. Now, the UP ATS is in touch with their counterparts in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Maharastra and also in Gujrat, to help them in arresting the other SIMI members. Three people have been also arrested on charges of issuing data cards to these accused on the basis of fake IDs. They were identified as Gaurav, Asheesh and Jaspal Sethi. On last Friday, just a day before the by-polls in the state, a low-intensity blast occurred inside a house in Jatan locality under Kotwali police station area of Bijnore allegedly while making crude bomb. Police had initially said that four youth including two injured had escaped. However, later it came to knowledge that half a dozen youths had slipped just after the blast. Different agencies involved in the investigations had suspected the hand of SIMI operatives in the case and the Madhya Pradesh police had identified them as those who had fled from jail.