The National Investigation Agency has asked the Ministry of Home Affairs for sanction to drop >terrorism charges against two men from Azamgarh in Uttar Pradesh accused of attending a training camp organised by leaders of the banned Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) in a Kerala forest. The secret training camp was organised by Safdar Nagori, leader of the SIMI’s armed faction in December 2007.
Shah Alam and Abu Saad were allegedly SIMI members and they were named by multiple investigating agencies for being part of terror attacks from 2008 to 2011 in the country.
The Indian Mujahideen, a home-grown terror outfit comprising mostly of former SIMI members, claimed responsibility for these attacks.
At least 14 men from Azamgarh were part of the IM module, including its leader Atif Ameen who was killed in an encounter at Batla House in Delhi in 2008.
“We decided to drop charges against the two men after we found no evidence against them. These men never visited the camp organised in Kerala. They were named in the case as they were associated with SIMI,” said a senior NIA official.
In January this year, a team of NIA officials had to face a massive protest from locals when they went to Azamgarh to trace the two accused. The NIA team had to come back empty-handed as the residents did not allow them to enter the village.
According to the NIA, a secret training camp was organised by the banned SIMI activists at Thangalpara, Wagamon in Kerala. The aim was to wage a war against the nation. The case was first registered by the Kerala police under various Sections of the Unlawful (Activities) Prevention Act. It was later transferred to the NIA in 2009. The agency has filed a charge sheet against 36 people, including Safdar Nagori. Two others are still absconding.
The NIA also wrote to the MHA to seek sanction for the prosecution of the absconding accused: Alamjeb Afridi, a resident of Juhapura in Ahmedabad, and Wasif Billa. “We have begun the procedure to declare the two accused proclaimed offenders so that we can file a charge sheet against them in absentia. The case has been committed to trial and we want to conclude it,” the official said. Afridi was allegedly involved in multiple serial blasts in the country.
