India Timeline - Year 2008

January 1: Seven Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel and a civilian were killed in a pre-dawn terrorist attack on the para-military CRPF Group Centre at Rampur in Uttar Pradesh. Three more CRPF personnel, a civil police personnel and a home guard were injured in the attack. The Uttar Pradesh Principal Secretary J.N. Chamber said that the attack was carried out around 2.45 am (IST) by two suspected fidayeen (suicide squad) dressed as CRPF constables. They breached the outer security (which is the responsibility of the police), and started firing indiscriminately from AK-47 rifles on the security post, the guard room and the control room. The terrorists subsequently escaped under cover of darkness.

January 7: Police claimed to have arrested a militant of the Hizb-ul-Mujahideen (HM) group from Kumili in the Idukki district of Kerala. Altaf Ahmed, a 29-year old native of Jammu and Kashmir, was involved in various crimes against the government, Assistant Superintendent of Police Vikramjith Singh said. Altaf was arrested on January 6 following information from the Jammu and Kashmir Police. He had reportedly applied for a passport in Idukki and the Kerala Police had sent his documents to their counterparts in Jammu and Kashmir for verification when his identity came to light, police said adding the accused got training from Pakistan.

January 8: The ‘Q’ Branch of the Tamil Nadu Police intercepted a consignment of explosives bound for Sri Lanka in Madurai and took six persons into custody, who admitted that they were meant for use by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). S. Sivakrishnan alias Nandan of Sri Lanka and S. Muthuramalingam of Kamuthi were found to be in possession of 5,000 detonators concealed in a travel bag.

January 9: The Hyderabad city police have claimed that the Harkat-ul-Jehad-al-Islami (HuJI) was responsible for the twin explosions in the city on August 25, 2007, that killed 43 persons. A top police officer said that "Narco-analysis tests conducted on Rafi alias Sheik Abdul Kaleem of Hyderabad gave us names of the key persons involved. Now, we are in the process of gathering evidence against them."

January 10: A suspected Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) cadre, Abbas Khan alias Akhdas Khan alias Mohsin Alam, was arrested for his alleged involvement in a fake currency racket in Kolkata, by the detective department from a house at Chamru Singh Lane in East Kolkata’s Narkeldanga area. He had earlier been convicted by a Gujarat court for the Godhra violence but was released on bail. He had jumped parole and remained untraceable.

January 16: Two Bangladeshi nationals, with suspected links to the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), Pakistan’s external intelligence agency, were arrested from the Shibpur area of Howrah district in West Bengal. "Shamim Akhtar and Sheikh Alamgir were arrested on a tip-off from a former jawan of the Central Reserve Police Force whom they were trying to recruit," said Rajeev Kumar, Inspector General of Police (Special Operations). Believed to be part of the ISI’s espionage module, they were engaged in recruiting ex-servicemen to extract strategic information, he added.

The Tamil Nadu Police arrested on January 16-night Nathan alias Suruli alias Thambithurai Parameswaran, the LTTE Tamil Nadu intelligence unit chief, from a hideout at Madipakkam. They also arrested seven other Sri Lankan nationals, who worked under him as helpers to collect information about anti-LTTE leaders like Varadaraja Perumal and Douglas Devananda, besides posing as traders to buy items like spare parts for two-wheelers and boats to be sent back to Sri Lanka.

Three Sri Lankan nationals suspected to have links with the LTTE and a person from Chennai was arrested in New Delhi allegedly with forged travel documents. The Sri Lankan nationals, identified as Francis Jansan (29), T.S. Ranjit (28) and John Mary Agastan (22), were arrested from a hotel at Paharganj in central Delhi, an unnamed police officer said, adding that the fake travel papers were also seized from them. The fourth person, Ayakannu, was accompanying the trio who hailed from Jaffna.

January 20: Three persons, including an Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agent from Pakistan, were arrested by the Madhya Pradesh Special Task Force (STF) from capital Bhopal for allegedly passing on sensitive information about the Indian Army. "Mohammed Imran Warsi, the ISI agent hailing from Karachi, was arrested in Bhopal yesterday [January 20] with sensitive information regarding deployment, unit details and important phone numbers of the Indian Army," said Inspector General of Police (STF), Sanjeev Singh. On information gathered from him, police arrested two others — Iqbal and Akhtar—, who were acting as his local contacts and supplying him sensitive information.

Tamil Nadu Police arrested two more persons in connection with the smuggling of ball bearings, reportedly used by the LTTE to make explosives, to Sri Lanka. Following the trail of cell phone contacts of Nathan alias Suruli, arrested along with seven others at Madipakkam on January 17 in the same case, ‘Q’ Branch police intercepted Selvaraj, working in a sweet stall in Mumbai for the last 25 years, and seized small packets of ball bearings he had bought as samples.

January 23: A fast track court in Lucknow, capital of Uttar Pradesh, sentenced five militants of the Harkat-ul-Jehad-al-Islami (HuJI) to life term for waging war against the State, sedition, conspiracy and other charges. The convicts, Mehboob Ali, Sayeed Shoaib, Mohammad Rizwan, Farhan and Mohammad Saad, were arrested by the Special Task Force from Lucknow on April 5, 2006, along with Waliullah, the prime accused in the Varanasi twin blasts which occurred in the Sankat Mochan temple and near the railway station in March 2006. The court also awarded them 32 years of additional imprisonment under various sections of the Indian Penal Code, besides imposing a fine of INR 40,000 each. All punishments will run concurrently.

January 25: Bashir Ahmed Mir, the HuJI ‘commander-in-chief’ for operations across India was shot dead by police in the Doda district. Operating under the code-name "Hijazi," Pakistan-trained Mir is believed to have ordered a string of strikes across north and south-east India in 2007, including the court complex bombings in Uttar Pradesh, the bombing of the Ajmer Sharif shrine in Rajasthan, and the multiple bombings which took place in Hyderabad in Andhra Pradesh.

January 29: The Karnataka Police is reported to have recently arrested a cook and a medical student for alleged terrorist links, according to Rediff. The duo revealed that they had plans of bombing the Hubli airport. During the interrogation of Mohammed Riazuddin Nasir and his associate Assadullah Abbubukar, the police learnt that the Nasir’s father Mohammad Naseeruddin is a Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) operative and has received training in Pakistan. Intelligence Bureau sources said that Naseerruddin is a trained suicide bomber, who was trained at Muzafarabad in Pakistan occupied Kashmir.

Security around former Deputy Prime Minister L. K. Advani and Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi was reviewed following intelligence inputs that "Global Terrorist" Dawood Ibrahim has been asked by Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence to assassinate them. The inputs to central agencies have come from various sources indicating that Dawood had been approached by the ISI to carry out the plot, sources said.

February 2: Quoting the interrogation reports of Hyderabad resident Raziuddin Nasir, The Hindu reported that the Islamist fundamentalists planned serial blasts on the Goa beaches. Nasir, who is being interrogated by intelligence agencies and the police departments of more than 12 States in Karnataka, has disclosed that the purpose of his visit to Goa immediately after the twin blasts in Hyderabad on August 25, was to identify beaches for organising serial blasts.

February 6: The United States intelligence believes that Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) and other Kashmir-based insurgent groups will continue to plan and execute "attacks" in India. Director of National Intelligence Michael McConnel has said that, "The intelligence community assesses that Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and other Kashmir-focussed groups will continue attack planning and execution in India. Shia and Hindu religious observances are possible targets, as are transportation networks and government buildings."

February 7: Chief Minister Digamber Kamat said that an alert has been sounded in Goa and police have intensified checking to track possible terror plots in the state. The move follows the arrest of a suspected militant Riazuddin Nasir in January 2008 in Karnataka who had allegedly confessed about his plans to carry out strikes in Karnataka and Goa. The militant had reportedly said that he could not translate his terror plans into action as he failed to receive a consignment of 50 kilograms of RDX explosive from Pakistan.

The Union Government decided to continue the ban imposed on the Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) for two more years for its alleged links with certain Pakistan-based terrorist outfits. The decision was taken at a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. According to intelligence reports SIMI cadres are joining Pakistan-based Lashker-e-Toiba (LeT) and Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) and the outfit is found to be providing logistical support in setting up of ‘sleeper cells’ in the hinterland.

February 11: The Tamil Nadu Police arrested an alleged supplier of explosives to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and seized from him 100 detonators, 83 gelatine sticks and 10 metres of fuse wire. The man had been shuttling between Tiruchirapalli and Pudukottai to procure the explosive substances, including gelatine sticks, Tamil Nadu Police's 'Q' Branch Inspector Thiagarajan, who arrested him, told reporters.

February 12: The Corps of Detectives, which is investigating a terrorist module unearthed by the Davangere police in Karnataka, arrested an electrician from Dharwad for his alleged links with the banned SIMI. The arrested identified as Shakeel, a resident of Koppadakeri in the Dharwad district, had helped the SIMI activists to hold two meetings, one near the Mastansab Darga on Saudatti Road and the other at the Halligere forests on Haliyal Road in Hubli in November 2007.

February 16: An ex-Serviceman, Shailesh Jadhav, was arrested, from the Pune railway station when he was about to board a train for Jodhpur, for having alleged links with Pakistan’s external Intelligence agency, Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). Some classified documents pertaining to the Army were seized from his possession.

February 21: The Corps of Detectives (CoD) arrested a software engineer for suspected links with the banned Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) from Guruappanapalya under Mico Layout police station limits in Bangalore, capital of Karnataka. However, four of his alleged accomplices escaped during the police operation. Yahya Khan is a native of Kerala and was working in a leading multinational information technology company in the city and he was reportedly under watch by the Bangalore Police for the past few days. Police sources said that the arrest followed information given by Mohammad Asif, a final-year MBBS student, and another SIMI activist, who was arrested in Hubli recently.

February 23: Asian Age reports that the Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) has tasked two groups of terrorists to attack the Nuclear Fuel Complex in Hyderabad and the Kaiga Nuclear Power Plant at Karwar in Karnataka. According to intelligence inputs and information gathered following the arrest of six LeT terrorists in Lucknow on February 11, 2008, the LeT operatives, with arms sourced from the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA), have reportedly entered the country through Nepal.

February 25: The Deoband-based Darul Uloom Madrassa (seminary) denounced all acts of terrorism as un-Islamic. "We don’t have any link or association with terrorism, terrorists, whatsoever. We reject terrorism in all its forms and manifestations," Maulana Marghoob-ur Rahman, the chief rector of Darul Uloom, said at a conclave in Deoband. "Terrorism completely negates the teachings of Islam, which is the faith of love and peace", he added.

February 26: The Corps of Detectives (CoD) has arrested a Bangalore resident Syed Sameer alias Sameer Sadaq in Gurappanapalya for his suspected links with the SIMI. He is reportedly an associate of the arrested software engineer and SIMI functionary Mohammed Yahya Kammakutty who was arrested earlier. Sameer was earlier arrested by the Gujarat Police in 2004 for his association with the SIMI. The police in Bangalore suspect that Sameer attended SIMI meetings held in November 2007 on the outskirts of Hubli and the forests abutting Goa, which were attended by 25 SIMI activists from Karnataka, Kerala and Uttar Pradesh.

March 4: Press Trust of India quoting the Bangladeshi newspaper Pratham Alo reported that the Harkat-ul Jihad-al-Islami Bangladesh (HuJI-B) used to supply grenades to the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) to carry out attacks in India. An arrested HuJI-B leader Abu Zandal has told the police during his interrogation in Dhaka that the outfit had sent several consignments of grenades to the LeT operating in India until 2004. The last such consignment however, could not be delivered as the LeT representative who was supposed to receive it was killed in an encounter with Border Security Force (BSF) near Bangladesh's Kaliganj frontier. Zandal reportedly told the interrogators that the LeT leader Yazdani, who was killed in 2006 by the Delhi Police, used to maintain links with the detained HuJI-B ‘operations commander’ Mufti Abdul Hannan.

Security around Tihar Jail in the national capital New Delhi was beefed up following intelligence inputs that militants were planning to carry out a suicide attack on the prison complex. This information was given in the Lok Sabha (Lower House of Parliament) by the Union Minister of State for Home Affairs, V. Radhika Selvi. The Minister said an intelligence input regarding plans of jihadi terrorist attack on the Tihar Jail was received in September 2007 prompting the authorities to carry out effective changes in the security apparatus around the prison.

March 6: Police in Hyderabad arrested an agent of the Pakistani external intelligence agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), identified as Billah following leads provided by a terror suspect in Karnataka. Billah was reportedly named by Raziuddin Naser, who was arrested in Karnataka in January 2008 in connection with a plot to carry out terrorist attacks in Goa and Hyderabad. Some sensitive documents and compact discs were recovered from Billah, who had previously been booked for two cases filed in late 2004. Hyderabad Police Commissioner, D. Prasada Rao, told CNN-IBN, "Billah was the person who helped Naser go underground and helped hide him after the twin blasts in Hyderabad. He is involved in Jihadi activities."

March 11: A senior cadre of the outlawed Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI), Dr Arif Abrar, who had surrendered before a lower court in Nagpur in January 2008, was granted bail by the 10^th Ad hoc Sessions Judge. Abrar who was lodged in the Nagpur central jail after police interrogation is expected to be released shortly. Defence lawyer A.M. Rizway stated that court found no incriminating evidence against him.

March 17: National Security Adviser M.K. Narayanan said that the Union Government has received intelligence reports that some sympathisers of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in certain "small" pockets of Kerala and Tamil Nadu were extending support to the outfit in various forms.

March 18: The Union Minister of State for Home, Sriprakash Jaiswal, said in a written reply in the Lok Sabha (lower house of parliament) that the proscribed Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) and its associates were planning to commit serial blasts and other serious offences in the country. "While there was no present input indicating any specific plans of SIMI to attack important installation, ...One arrested person disclosed that he along with his SIMI associates were planning to commit serial blasts and other serious offences," Jaiswal said.

A retired sepoy of the Indian Army was arrested by the special cell of Delhi Police from the Jama Masjid area on charges of maintaining links with the Pakistani external intelligence agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). The arrested person, identified as Javed Ahmed, was en route to hand over some classified documents related to the armed forces to an ISI agent, identified as Siddhqui. Several other papers containing details on training provided in the army were also seized from him. Police described Ahmed as part of an espionage ring operating in Delhi and Uttar Pradesh for the past several years.

March 26: National Security Advisor (NSA) M. K. Narayanan, delivering the 25th Air Chief Marshal P. C. Lal Memorial Lecture, said that the Pakistani external intelligence agency, the Inter Services Intelligence (ISI), continues to help terrorist outfits like the Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) and the Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) to launch attacks against India. "We have seen no change in ISI's attitude to mentor terror groups like Lashkar and Jaish... attacks on India from Pakistan's soil are likely to continue", he said.

March 27: Thirteen leaders of the proscribed Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI), including the outfit’s General Secretary Safdar Nagori and his brother Kamruddin Nagori, were arrested following several raids in Indore by the Madhya Pradesh Police. Police described the arrested persons as active members of the outfit hailing from Kerala, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh. The arrested persons included SIMI’s Karnataka unit chief Hafiz Hussain and Shivli, who is the mainstay of the group’s operations in Kerala.

The police arrested there persons who were involved in smuggling activities for the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), under the National Security Act. The arrestees were identified as Murugapandi, Muthuramalingam and R. Raja. According to a press release, four Maoists were also arrested from Varsanadu in the Theni district and cases were filed against them under various sections of the IPC, Arms Act, Explosive Substances Act and Criminal Law Amendment Act.

Times of India quoting intelligence agencies reported that underworld gangster Dawood Ibrahim’s ‘D-Company’ in Pakistan is now officially a part of the Lashkar-e-Toiba’s terror network. The merger has been described as a part of the plan by the Pakistani external intelligence agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), to further increase its anti-India campaign.

March 28: A designated Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act (TADA) court in Tamil Nadu sentenced 11 persons to 10 years Rigorous Imprisonment each in the Kullanchavadi bomb attack case in the Cuddalore district, in which a constable was killed and three others injured in November 1993.

March 31: Zee News reported that the Madhya Pradesh Police arrested five SIMI cadres from an unspecified location. Meanwhile, the investigators interrogating the 13 SIMI leaders arrested in Madhya Pradesh last week have claimed that the SIMI was planning to kill top leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party, including the Leader of Opposition L. K. Advani, and Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi. The investigators further claimed that the SIMI was even running training camps for militants to carry out terrorist attacks in the country.

April 2: The Madhya Pradesh Police neutralised a training camp of the SIMI in Choral, a popular holiday spot, 35-kilometres from the State capital Bhopal. Police claimed that interrogation of the 13 arrested SIMI cadres led to the information on the existence of the camp. The Superintendent of Police Chanchal Shekhar said, "We were told the camp trained SIMI activists from Jharkhand, Kerala, Karnataka and a few other states. Each training camp would train around 20 SIMI members. We have information of five such camps in the past one-and-half years, which would mean about a hundred SIMI activists trained in Choral." He also said that the trainees were made to climb the surrounding mountains and swim across the river daily. The police also found evidence of a firing range and exploded bits of petrol bombs.

The Coastal Security Group police neutralised a network involved in supplying uniforms to the LTTE. It came to light when a CSG team raided a boat used to make illegal trips to Iranatheevu, controlled by the LTTE, in Sri Lanka, near the fishing harbour in Rameswaram. There were five persons on board, identified as Oomaiyan alias Christhu, Vellaiyan, the owner of the boat Chellaiah, Murugan and Arasu, who possessed photographs of model uniforms, which were supposed to be delivered to a group of tailors in Tamil Nadu. A sum of INR 3000 and 50 soaps were also seized.

April 3: At least three persons, including a woman, were killed in a bomb blast inside a house in the Siliguri district. A senior police officer said, "The bomb was a powerful improvised explosive device and we are trying to find out what the people inside were up to." Police said they were investigating their links with several Madheshi groups operating in the nearby Terai region of Nepal.

April 4: Three persons, including a woman, were arrested for allegedly renting their premises to leaders of the banned SIMI in Indore and Khargone. A house in the Shyam Nagar locality of Indore was rented to SIMI's Andhra Pradesh unit chief Qamaruddin Nagori from where police arrested top 13 leaders of the outfit on March 27. The house rented to the SIMI by Gaffar Khan Bakerywale was registered in the name of his daughter-in-law Shahnaz Bi. Police arrested both Khan and Shahnaz for not providing information to the police about giving their house on rent. Separately, in Khargone, another person, identified as Shahzad Hussein, was arrested for allegedly providing his farmhouse to the SIMI for running training camps.

April 5: Three SIMI activists were arrested from Narsinghgarh town in the Rajgarh district of Madhya Pradesh. The Rajgarh Superintendent of Police D. K. Arya said that the SIMI cadres, identified as Irfan, Faizal and Shakir, were arrested on charges of aiding anti-national elements and indulging in illegal activities. An unspecified quantity of objectionable material, video cassettes and CDs were recovered from the house where the arrests occurred.

April 7: Six SIMI cadres were arrested by the Madhya Pradesh Police. While five of them were arrested from Guna, another suspected SIMI cadre, identified as Naved Irfan, was arrested from Indore’s Muslim-dominated Khajrana area for allegedly indulging in illegal activities and aiding anti-national elements, a senior police officer said. With these arrests, the total number of arrests of SIMI cadres in the State, since March 27, has gone upto 35.

April 10: The Mumbai Police arrested two SIMI cadres from the Thane district. The duo, identified as Irshad Salim Khan and Israr Ahmed Abdul Hamid Tailor, are believed to be close to the arrested secretary-general of the outfit, Safdar Nagori. Khan is a civil engineer by profession and was the former president of the outfit while Israr Ahmed is a computer professional.

The Madhya Pradesh Police arrested a SIMI cadre from Rishala area of Indore city. The arrested cadre, identified as Hafiz Yusuf, has been an active worker of the outfit and played a significant role in collecting funds for the outfit, police sources said. He was working in a mobile shop in Indore.

April 11: Three persons were injured when two bombs exploded in quick succession near the Alipurduar rail station in West Bengal.

April 21: Nagaland Post quoting Government sources reports that a Unified Command Structure would be set up in Arunachal Pradesh to combat militants from neighbouring Assam and Nagaland who are using the mountainous region as a base to carry out their hit-and-run guerrilla strikes. Militant groups like the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) are reportedly setting up well-entrenched bases in the Tirap, Changlang, and Lohit districts. "The Unified Command that is likely to be initiated would be similar to the one currently operational in Assam," an unnamed senior official said. "The ULFA is not only setting up bases in the state but also using Arunachal Pradesh as a transit to Myanmar. We cannot allow our State to be used by militants from other states for anti-national activities," he stated.

April 22: The Union Minister of State for Home Affairs, Sriprakash Jaiswal, replying to questions in the Lok Sabha (lower house of Parliament) said that the banned Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) has links with terrorist groups, including the Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT). He said that the links have been revealed in investigations into a number of cases. The minister further said that 181 SIMI cadres have been arrested in various States since 2006 and arms, ammunition, incriminating literature and other items were recovered from them. Of them, 128 were arrested in Madhya Pradesh.

The Union Minister of State for Home Affairs Radhika Selvi informed the Lok Sabha that there are reports that some militant groups from the northeast have links with the Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and some other terrorist organizations of neighbouring countries such as the Bangladesh-based Harkat-ul-Jehad-al-Islami (HuJI). "Available inputs also indicate that some Indian insurgent groups (IIGs), active in the North-east, have been using the territory of Bangladesh and Myanmar,’’ she added. She also denied that there is any such report that the HuJI has established its base camps in the Dhubri and Bonbaigaon districts in Assam.

April 23: The involvement of Pakistan-based outfits has been observed in most of the terrorist attacks in India as groups from across the border continue to sponsor terrorist and subversive activities in the country, the Union Home Ministry said in its Annual Report for 2007-08. "The hand of Pakistan-based terrorist organisations - LeT and JeM - and, increasingly of the Bangladesh-based HuJI, known to have close links with ISI, has been observed in most of these cases," the 167-page report said. The incidents showed these groups have been using sleeper cells in the country to carry out such activities, and have also been using the territory of other neighbouring countries such as Bangladesh and Nepal, it said.

April 24: The West Bengal Police arrested one People's Revolutionary Party of Kangleipak (PREPAK) militant, ‘capt.’ Boiyai, when he was trying to board a Jet Airways flight for Bangkok using a passport in the name of one Akash Sharma of Manipur at Kolkata International Airport. A briefcase containing some important files was recovered from his possession. He reportedly belonged to Moirang Khunou in the Bishnupur district of Manipur.

April 26: An arms smuggler and a linkman of the Kamtapur Liberation Organisation (KLO), identified as Pradip Das alias Phagua, was arrested from his house at Botun in Kumarganj of West Dinajpur district. He was subsequently produced before the chief judicial magistrate in Balurghat on April 27 and remanded to police custody for seven days. Police sources said that Das was regularly smuggling arms to Bangladesh for the KLO and also helped the militants enter and leave Bangladesh.

April 27: A combined team of the Manipur and Karnataka Police arrested six People’s United Liberation Front (PULF) militants from a hotel in Mysore. They were identified as ‘general secretary’ Mohammed Ibrahim alias Qusi alias M.I. Khan, ‘secretary exter

nal affairs and chief of army’ Mohammed Nurjaman alias Deny, ‘organisation-cum-publicity-secretary’ Mohammed Abdul Jabbar alias Belal Khan, ‘deputy commander in-chief-cum-finance secretary’ Mohammed Nasir Khan alias Thadoi alias Keshorjit alias Boy, ‘private’ Mohammed Mustafa and ‘private’ Mohammed Nur Safi. Four mobile phones and incriminating documents were recovered from them.

May 8: Three suspected SIMI activists were arrested from the New Housing Board colony area of Morena in Madhya Pradesh. Fake currency worth INR 80,000 and four mobile phones were recovered from them. Police sources said that one of the arrested Naajmia belongs to Kayamganj in Uttar Pradesh, while the other two, Pappu alias Sudhir Jadaun and Rajbir Gurjar, were from Morena.

May 10: An explosion at the district court in Hubli in Karnataka caused extensive damage to the premises although no casualties were reported. The explosive was placed under the witness box of the JMFC court hall and was reportedly detonated by a mobile phone. Investigators claimed to have recovered the SIM card of the phone.

May 11: The Hubli-Dharwad Police Commissioner Narayana Nadamani pointed out that as per preliminary investigations, the May 10 explosion in the district court in Hubli in Karnataka could be the handiwork of the LeT and the SIMI.

May 12: A truck driver was killed and three persons were injured when a bomb kept in a plastic container hanging from a bicycle exploded near a tin shade alongside national highway (NH) 31C in Barobisha of Alipurduar in West Bengal. The tin roof of the shade was blown off and a telephone pole against which the bicycle carrying the bomb had been left was badly damaged. Alipurduar Additional Superintendent of Police S R Mishra said an unidentified extremist group had planted the bomb. "We suspect that a timer was used to set it off", he said.