PUNE, 4 January 2003 — Following the arrest of several Muslim youths from Aurangabad in western Maharashtra for their alleged involvement in the bomb blasts on BEST buses in Bombay last month, intelligence agencies and Bombay police are spreading their dragnet to arrest more people whom they suspect to have planned the bomb blasts and, may be in the process of repeating these acts in other parts of the state.
According to sources, the police have come to the conclusion that the acts to sabotage is the work of the banned Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) as the arrested persons so far have been found to be the activists of the banned organization.
Aurangabad has now become the center for terrorist activities and hide-out after Bombay, said a police official, and the police with the help of intelligence agencies are concentrating on this city in a bid to wipe out the alleged militancy before it takes root in the city.
The intelligence agencies, the sources said, have also shifted their focus on Aurangabad-based journalists serving in Gulf countries. Anti-Hindu articles are being collected by the agencies with the help of Indian missions and newspapers in which they appear. These are vetted and dossiers are being prepared on such journalists. Officials from the intelligence department, both at the central and state level, are monitoring the movement of the families of such suspected journalists who may have been influenced by organizations like SIMI and Al-Qaeda while working in Gulf countries, said the sources.
Police officials refused to comment on the surveillance on the families of journalists’ from Aurangabad based in the Gulf. They, however, said that if during the course of their investigations if it is found that the journalists have links with the banned outfits or they are found to be indulging in hate campaign against the country and its leaders, then their passports will be canceled and the host countries will be requested to deport them, they said.
