Though virtually no incident of terror attack has been reported from MP in the past several years, the number of terror-related cases registered in the state is substantial, indicating either intelligence failure or frame-ups or both
BHOPAL : Though the ruling party functionaries do not get tired of describing Madhya Pradesh as an ‘island of peace’ but it is an undeniable fact that over the years the State – and particularly the Malwa region – has emerged as a safe haven for activists of terror outfits of all hues and colours. Mercifully, the state has not witnessed a single terror attack but, going by the number of cases, it is clear that it is being used by terror organisations as a safe hideout for their sleeper cells. This puts a big question mark on the efficacy of the intelligence set-up of the government.
The recent arrest of Azhar Iqbal, allegedly associated with the Syria-based dreaded ISIS by the NIA from the residence of a lawyer in Bhopal has again underlined the gravity of the situation. He was calmly taking English tuitions in a coaching institute with the state police being none the wiser.
In last two years alone, around 40 incidents of alleged
anti-national activities have been reported from the state. Last year, 15 such incidents were reported while in 2014 their number was 25. This year, till date, two such incidents have come to the fore.
Activists of anti-national organisations have been caught for operating fake currency rackets, gunrunning, trying to lure young men to join their ranks, for possession of incendiary literature and so on in the state.
This year, in January, an alleged terrorist fled from the Itarsi railway station, from the custody of the Tamil Nadu Police. The TN cops were taking him to Lucknow for a hearing by the Rapti Sagar Express. The man was a cancer patient on liquid diet and was not even able to walk. Clearly, he could not have escaped without outside help. And the fact that he seems to have vanished into thin air shows that the escape was well-planned and meticulously executed.
Counting from the year 2007, the number of such cases has already crossed the 100 mark. In the year 2007, only two cases where reported but the figure jumped to 14 in 2009, only to dip to 3 in 2010. In the year 2011, 7 cases were reported, which more than doubled to 16 in 2012. The next year witnessed 15 such incidents. The highest number of cases -25- was reported in the year 2014. The number of cases was 15 in 2015. Till February 16 this year, two cases have already been reported.
On the Republic Day in 2015, a man, identified as Zahoor Khan was arrested, along with fake currency notes worth Rs 5,60,000 from Habibganj railway station. A resident of Sehore district, Zahoor Khan had bought the fake notes from Malda in West Bengal. He was dealing in counterfeit currency for the past 7-8 years and was expected to have pumped duplicate currency worth Rs 10 lakh in the state the police said.
On February 6 in Old Pandhurna of Chhindwara District, the Maharashtra ATS along with the Madhya Pradesh Police, carried out raid at a house owned by Khusal Madankar in old Pandhurna in Chhindwara District and recovered huge amount of ammunition and explosives including 1,768 electric detonators, 612 sticks of Kelvex power 90 Class-2 explosive, 840 feet Detonating cord, one exploder and other related equipments.
Police registered a case against two persons, identified as Mukesh Sankhla and Rajmal Sankhla, both belonging to Bhilwada District in Rajasthan. The accused were booked under the Indian Explosive Substance Act-1908. ATS Nagpur unit interrogated the accused for any suspected link with anti-national elements, terror outfits or Naxal elements.
On April 15, five persons identified as Imran Khan Muhammad Sharif, Wasim Khan, Mohammad Rizwan, Anwar and Mazhar were arrested from Ratlam and were said to be the part of an IS-linked jihad cell.
Imran Khan Muhammad Sharif, the leader of the five accused is alleged to have been recruited online by an Indian jihadist he knew as “Yusuf” – a code, investigators said, for Karnataka-born Muhammad Shafi Armar, a fugitive IM operative now leading a group of Indians fighting with the IS. On May 14, in Bhopal, the police arrested Waqar Khan, a 43-year-old man running a private security agency with wireless sets tuned to banned frequencies of Army and police, Police seized around 70 more wireless sets from him. State ATS, military intelligence and related agencies joined the investigations following its international ramifications.
In the year 2014, on 3rd February in Ujjain district. A SIMI cadre, identified as Zuber was arrested by the ATS from Nagori Mohalla in Mahidpur area of Ujjain district. More than 200 detonators, gelatin rods and explosive powder were recovered from his possession.
Two days later, the police again arrested a SIMI cadre, identified as Irfan by the ATS from near Ujjain. On April 27, the state ATS arrested a suspected SIMI activist, identified as Gulrez Mustafa from Bhopal railway station.
On September 12, the ATS arrested one person associated with SIMI from Jabalpur district by tracing incoming and outgoing calls on one of the mobile phones left by Khandwa jail-breaker fugitives before they escaped from their hideout in Uttar Pradesh’s Bijnor District.
The IG Law and Order Makrand Deoskar a claimed, “These anti national outfits had not carried out any active crime in the state”. Stating the example of Naxal elements, he also had a claim that “For long time, they are not able to do any activity in state Madhya Pradesh”.
Drugs have always been associated with terrorism. Drug trafficking is a highly lucrative enterprise generating huge profits that terrorist organisations use to fund their activities. Interestingly, the Malwa region, which has emerged as a hotbed of terror-related activities in the state, also has a drug connection. Madhya Pradesh is the biggest producer of Opium in the country—accounting for more than half of the total output, with Rajasthan and UP making up the rest. Vast tracts of land in Malwa are under Opium cultivation. Theoretically, the Opium farmers can sell their produce only to the government and that too at the rate fixed by the latter. Needless to say, the rate is quite modest. In practice, farmers manage to siphon off a part of their produce to the black-market, where it fetches a fabulous price and is refined into Psychotropic drugs like Heroine. And this illegal trade is the secret of this area’s prosperity. Unlike in other parts of the state, where farm income is nothing to write home about, in Opium farmers are big earners and big spenders. The Opium farm lobby, by virtue its moneyed patrons, enjoys great clout among the local politicians. No wonder all politicians never get tired of promising to solve the problems of the Opium growers. And the leaders of both the parties regularly accuse each other of being in cahoots with the “Opium mafia.
In October 2008, the ATS of Maharashtra Police arrested Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur from Surat in Gujarat for her alleged involvement in bomb blasts in Malegaon. Minute investigations by the Maharashtra ATS, headed by Hemant Karkare (who was later killed in the Mumbai terror attack in November 2010) had revealed that her motorcycle was used in the blasts, which had killed four persons. A resident of the state, Thakur was the secretary of the Ujjain unit of ABVP. Besides Thakur, the Maharashtra ATS also arrested two youth from Indore. Later two more state residents were taken into custody. The BJP had, initially, tried to disown the Sadhvi and others saying they had nothing to do with the party or with the ABVP, the VHP or the Bajrang dal. Several important party leaders-from Venkaih Naidu downwards—had denied any links with the accused. Then surfaced a photograph showing the Sadhvi in the company of the chief minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan and the (then) BJP President Rajnath Singh. Subsequently, Uma Bharati rushed to the Sadhvi’s defense and even announced that she would be her party’s candidate in the next assembly elections. She also chided the BJP for disowning the Sadhvi.
A 2013 report of Jamia Teachers’ Solidarity Association titled “Guilt by Association: UAPA cases in Madhya Pradesh” says: It is remarkable that there have no incidents of terror attacks in Madhya Pradesh. In fact, the only incident of actual violence was a shootout in Teen Pulia area of Khandwa district on November 28, 2009 in which three people, including an ATS constable Sitaram Bathe died. The local police alleged that the motorcycle-borne assailant was a member of the outlawed SIMI. Except this solitary incident – and the veracity of the assailant’s link to the SIMI or even whether this shootout was indicative of any terror activity rather than being instance of ‘ordinary’ criminality, was not established – there have been no other incidents reported. For a state with such a history, the number of cases in which the accused were charged with furthering the activities of an unlawful organisation under UAPA is fairly high. Cases are registered against SIMI members, their friends and acquaintances in police stations in Indore, Seoni, Khanwal, Bhopal, Burhanpur, Ujjain, Neemuch, Guna etc. None of them, paradoxically, involves any instance of violent crime. In almost all the cases, the accused are alleged to have been pasting SIMI posters or possessing SIMI literature.
