BHOPAL, MARCH 27 : The all-India chief of the Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI), Safdar Nagori, and 12 other activists of the banned organisation were arrested today from a house in Indore where they had gathered for their annual meeting.

Acting on a tip-off from intelligence agencies, the special task force of the Madhya Pradesh police raided the house in Gulzar Colony in the early hours of Thursday. Besides Nagori, the arrested activists included Kamruddin Nagori, Amir Parvez, Hafiz Hussain and Shibly Peedicaal Abdul, who is the SIMI chief of south India. They were all asleep when the police struck between 3-4 am.

Nagori, who hails from Ujjain, and others were wanted in connection with several cases of bomb blasts and other anti-national activities. Seven pistols, 32 cartridges, 9 mobile phones, 15 masks, 22 surgical gloves and other surgical instruments were recovered from the three rooms where they had been staying for the last one month.

Shibly is wanted by the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad in connection with an Unlawful Activities Prevention Act case in Mumbai in which the chargesheet has been filed, said Additional Commissioner of Police (ATS) Parambir Singh. Shibly’s name had surfaced during the interrogation of another SIMI activist, Ehtesham Siddiqui, who is an accused in the 7/11 serial blasts case.

Of those arrested today, four each are from Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka and Kerala and one from Maharashtra. Three of them belong to Ujjain, the headquarters of SIMI when it was banned in 2001.

A lot of incendiary literature in Urdu and Hindi, and electronic equipment were seized. The literature speaks of establishing an Islamic world. The police also seized Rs 45,000 in cash. Newspaper clippings on the outfit’s involvement in the bomb blasts across the country were recovered.

A case has been registered in the Pithampur police station. Besides sedition, they have been charged with fomenting communal disturbances among other offences. They will be produced in court tomorrow.

IG (Indore) Anil Kumar said the activists were being trained for anti-national activities with the help of a training syllabus and equipment. He alleged that the organisation was linked to the underworld and Pakistani-based organisations, adding that its association with terror groups like the al Qaeda could not be ruled out.

Teams from Maharashtra, Haryana, Karnataka, Kerala and Uttar Pradesh are reaching Indore to interrogate the activists in connection with the blasts that took place in their states.

Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan suggested that SIMI could be behind several incidents of communal violence that took place in Madhya Pradesh, especially in Indore and other parts of Malwa region.