The Delhi Police has arrested a 47-year-old member of Students’ Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) who also allegedly edited a magazine of the banned organisation besides indoctrinating many gullible youths.
According to the police, Hanif Sheikh was declared a proclaimed offender in 2002 and has been absconding for the last 22 years. He was nabbed on February 22 from Bhusawal in Jalgaon district in Maharashtra where he was a teacher in an Urdu school under a different identity, they said.
Deputy Commissioner of Police (Special Cell) Alok Kumar claimed that Hanif was the most notorious and wanted SIMI terrorist who had played pivotal roles in various activities of the proscribed organisation across the country. Police said the SIMI magazine that Hanif Sheikh edited had his name printed as Haneef Hudai. This was the only lead available with the police, making it difficult to trace him, they said.
A case of sedition and under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) was registered against him in 2001 at New Friends Colony police station in the national Capital.
“A local court declared him proclaimed offender in 2002,” Kumar said.
“A team from the Special Cell was tasked with collecting data, information and other digital footprints about the absconding SIMI cadre, sympathisers and sleeper cells across states. The team extensively visited and collected information from various parts of the country,” he said.
The information collected by the team helped the Delhi police’s special cell to zero in on Hanif. Following this, a raiding party was formed which laid a trap, the officer said.”Around 2.50 pm on February 22, a person travelling from Mohmadin Nagar to Khadka Road was identified as Hanif. As members of the team began to corner him, Hanif attempted to escape but was arrested after a scuffle,” the DCP said.
He said Hanif became highly radicalised after coming in contact with SIMI activists and after joining the organisation and he started attending its weekly programmes and radicalising youths.
Hanif was later appointed as the editor of the Urdu edition of the SIMI’s magazine in 2001, the police officer said.
The DCP added that Hanif was one of the think tank members of Wahadat-e-Islam and played an important role in Maharashtra and other adjoining States. “He was also involved in collecting money under the guise of donations to support and finance the agenda of SIMI as well as Wahadat-e-Islam.”
After fleeing Delhi in 2001, Hanif moved to Jalgaon and subsequently to Bhusawal in Maharashtra from where he was arrested, police said. SIMI was first banned in September 2001 and since then the ban has been extended on it by the government
Last month, the Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) extended the ban against the SIMI for another five years. The organisation was declared an “unlawful association,” under the anti-terror law Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) for the first time in 2001. Announcing the decision on X (formerly Twitter), Union Home Minister Amit Shah said, “Bolstering PM @narendramodi’s vision of zero tolerance against terrorism ‘Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI)’ has been declared as an ‘unlawful association’ for a further period of five years under the UAPA (unlawful activities prevention act). The SIMI has been found involved in fomenting terrorism, disturbing peace and communal harmony to threaten the sovereignty, security and integrity of Bharat.”
SIMI has caused problems for the Government and police over the years especially after the organisation split in 2005 into two groups - moderate one led by Shahid Badr Falahi and radical faction led by Safdar Nagori. Its leaders, including Riyaz Bhatkal and Iqbal Bhatkal (now in Pakistan), formed Indian Mujahideen (IM) in 2006-07 along with Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) to carry out attacks in India, while SIMI started providing logistical support.
