SIMI activist jumped bail last year

MUMBAI: Police teams a re looking for Saqib Nachen, an alleged activist of the banned Students Islamic Movement of India who had been arrested a year ago by the Thane rural police for allegedly handing out jehadi literature and widening the communal divide.
He was later released on bail and is now on the wanted list. The Thane rural police arrested another SIMI activist, Susen Gani Mulla, last month.He is also out on bail and wanted.
A year ago, eight SIMI activists had been arrested. Saqib is allegedly a hardcore terrorist who teamed up with Pakistanbased operatives in 1990 to “carry out terrorist activities in India to liberate Kashmir and Khalistan’’, intelligence officials said.
In 1992, the CBI arrested Saqib and his superiors, Pakistani national Mohammed Sharief, Lal Singh, Tahir Jamal and Shoaib Mukhtiar. All of them were sentenced to life by a designated TADA court in Ahmedabad.
In 2001, the supreme court dismissed an appeal by the accused to repeal their sentence, but modified the sentences of Tahir, Saqib and Shoaib to ten years. Intelligence agencies are trying to figure out the whereabouts of Tahir and Jamal.
The Mumbai police will seek Khot’s custody from the Thane rural police. The city police have already questioned two other SIMI activists, Shaheed Nerkar and Anis Nerkar, who are in Thane jail.
The Nerkar brothers were arrested from Thane last month and incriminating documents were recovered from them. The Thane police were surprised that the Nerkar brothers did not press for bail even after they were granted judicial custody on March 7. The police suspect they had an inkling of the Mulund blast of March 13.