Four SIMI terrorists, woman arrested from Rourkela

Officials said they were also on the radar of the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in connection with their probe cases.

Rourkela: Four terrorists of Students’ Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) and an elderly woman were arrested from Rourkela late on Tuesday night. A joint group of Special Operations Group (SOG), Telengana Police, Rourkela Police and Intelligence Bureau raids at the spot and captured the five.

Further details to follow. All the four hailed from Madhya Pradesh and were wanted by NIA, Singh said.

The five terrorists have been identified as as Mehboob Khan alias Guddu, Zakhir Khan alias Sadiq, Amjad Khan alias Dawood, Saliq alias Sallu and Najma (Mehboob’s mother).

While in hiding, the SIMI men were allegedly involved in terror activities in several states including Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh. He said the suspected terrorists were involved in many terror activities, bank robbery and involved in 17 blasts at various places. Police sources said the arrested ultras were involved in the killing of policemen in Telangana and in Madhya Pradesh.

Some ammunition has also been seized from them.

The arrested operatives were being interrogated by the police at a secret location, sources said. Four members surrendered, but one of them opened fire.

The SIMI activists had been staying at Rourkela the past two years by using a false identity, police said.

According to police, they were on a run since Khandwa rail-break.