Date:26/02/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/02/26/stories/2008022659781000.htm

National

Bangalore resident held for ‘terror links’

Special Correspondent

Bangalore: The Corps of Detectives (CoD) has arrested a Bangalore resident Syed Sameer alias Sameer Sadaq (34) for his suspected terror links.

Sources in the CoD told The Hindu that Sameer, a diploma holder and businessman, is actively associated with the banned Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI). He was an associate of the arrested software engineer Mohammed Yahya Kammakutty, who the police claim, is a top SIMI functionary. Sameer was arrested in Gurappanapalya from where Yahya was also picked up.

Raid in Surat

According to the sources, in 2004 the Gujarat police arrested Sameer for his association with the SIMI.

In early 2004, they raided a gathering of around 100 SIMI activists in Surat and arrested several of them. Around 10 of them were from Karnataka. The police said they seized jihadi material from them. Sameer and others, against whom a case is pending in Gujarat, frequently visit Surat to attend the hearings, the sources said.

After a terror network was busted by the Karnataka police recently, intelligence agencies had asked the Bangalore police to keep a tab on known SIMI activists such as Sameer. After Yahya was arrested, the police were on the lookout for his four accomplices, including Sameer.

The police suspect that Sameer attended the meetings organised by the SIMI in November on the outskirts of Hubli and the forests abutting Goa. Around 25 SIMI activists from Karnataka, Kerala and Uttar Pradesh attended them. A case has been registered in a Hubli police station and four people, including Yahya have been arrested.