Police claim to arrest founding member of SIMI from Delhi

Abdullah Danish, the 58-year-old suspected member of the banned organisation, was declared a proclaimed offender by a Delhi court in the case in 2002. He was caught from Delhi’s Zakir Nagar on Saturday, said deputy commissioner of police (special cell) Pramod Singh Kushwah.

The Delhi Police’s special cell on Sunday said they had arrested one of the founding members of the banned Students’ Islamic Movement of India (SIMI), who had been evading his arrest for 19 years in a sedition and unlawful activity case registered in Delhi in 2001.

The special cell team collected requisite intelligence about Danish and mounted surveillance on him and other former SIMI members. (HT Archives. Representative image)

Abdullah Danish, the 58-year-old suspected member of the banned organisation, was declared a proclaimed offender by a Delhi court in the case in 2002. He was caught from Delhi’s Zakir Nagar on Saturday, said deputy commissioner of police (special cell) Pramod Singh Kushwah.

Special cell officials said that Danish had allegedly indoctrinated many Muslim men, including the former chiefs of SIMI, Safdar Hussain Nagori and Abdul Subhan Qureshi alias Taukeer. Qureshi, who had earned the nickname of “India’s Osama bin Laden”, was involved in the 2008 Gujarat serial blasts. He was also the co-founder of terrorist organisation, Indian Muhajideen (IM), which carried out a series of blasts in Jaipur, Ahmedabad and Delhi between May and September 2008, they said.

DCP Kushwah said that for the past one year, the special cell sleuths were receiving inputs regarding Danish’s movements in various cities of Uttar Pradesh and in Delhi-NCR.

“As per information, Danish was indulging in radicalising Muslim youths to mobilise against Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) and National Register of Citizens (NRC) and propagating hardcore radical ideology to create disharmony among religious groups. By using fake videos, he was falsely propagating atrocities being committed upon Muslims by the government of India,” the DCP said.

The special cell team collected requisite intelligence about Danish and mounted surveillance on him and other former SIMI members. The team learnt that Danish would be coming to Delhi’s Zakir Nagar to meet some of the members. Accordingly, a trap was laid and he was caught on Saturday.

About the sedition and unlawful activity case in which Danish was wanted, DCP Kushwah said that after the government banned SIMI in September 2001, its office bearers were addressing a press conference near their headquarters in Jamia Nagar, Delhi, when the police conducted a raid and arrested many SIMI activists. Danish and a few others managed to escape from there.

After the escape, Danish went to Aligarh and thereafter to Azamgarh. He kept on changing his locations to evade arrest in the case.

Danish completed his Masters in Arabic from Aligarh Muslim University in 1985 and joined SIMI. For the next four years, he edited the Hindi edition of the magazine published by SIMI, the police said.