BHUBANESWAR: The four Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) operatives, who were arrested from Rourkela late on Tuesday night, have confessed to their role in the 2014 train blast at Chennai even as Odisha Police located a second safe house of the group at Bhadrak.
During their interrogation on Wednesday night, the Khandwa Module members of SIMI admitted that their fellow members Zakir Hussain and Md Aijazuddin had carried out the low-intensity explosions in Bengaluru-Guwahati Kaziranga Express at Chennai in which a lady IT professional was killed on May 1, 2014. On April 4, 2015, Aijazuddin along with another SIMI member Md Aslam was gunned down in a police encounter at Janakipuram in Nalgonda district of Telangana. The arrested operatives have, however, denied their role in the Patna blast.
In the intervening night of Tuesday and Wednesday, a joint operation by multiple security agencies had led to arrest of four SIMI members - Sk Mehboob, Amzad Khan, Zakir Hussain and Md Saleq. Mehboob’s 60-year-old mother Nazma Biwi was also held from the hideout.
Even as anti-terror squads of Madhya Pradesh, Telangana, Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra are set to quiz the terror operatives, State Police has found a second safe house. Though police had inputs about the hideout, it was finding it difficult to locate the exact place, sources said.
However, after their arrest on Tuesday, police traced the house in Nangamahala area of Bhadrak. The landlord was quizzed and shown pictures of the five whom he recognised, Special Director, Intelligence, Arun Kumar Sarangi said. The house is under lock and key and armed guards have been placed. Sarangi said, investigation revealed that the SIMI operatives maintained their hideouts at four places - Jamshedpur, Ranchi, Bhadark and Rourkela. After the Nalgonda encounter, they are believed to have fled to Kolkata and from there, to Ranchi.
“In Bhadrak, they would stay for seven to eight days and then move. About a month back, they told the landlord that they are were going for Nazma’s treatment. They did not go to Rourkela directly from Bhadrak. We believe they went through Ranchi,” Sarangi said.
The group was apparently looking for an opportunity to carry out a loot at neighbouring Chhattisgarh and move either to Bhadrak or Ranchi. Some documents and mobile phones have been found from the Bhadrak house. Meanwhile, the Special Task Force (STF) of Crime Branch of Odisha Police has taken over probe of the case. Since STF is mandated with all terror and jihadi related investigation, an eight-member team landed in Rourkela on Wednesday night.
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