Nagori strategy stumps cops

Bangalore: Why have the Bangalore police not made progress in the 7/25 serial blasts probe while Ahmedabad police have arrested some SIMI men with connections in Karnataka? 

A new strategy of working in sub-groups without coming into contact with the same faction members has made investigation difficult for Bangalore police. This is the reason why the police are finding it difficult to get a major breakthrough . 

SIMI members of the Safdar Nagori faction work in different groups for different operations. But a set of common members has attended the meetings held by each group to monitor the activities. 

The shift in SIMI strategy began in 2001 after SIMI split into two factions - one headed by Shahi Badar Falahi and another by Safdar Nagori. Since then, the Nagori group has been on a recruitment drive. When a new member joined, he would be attached to the same person who introduced him to SIMI. This way the new recruit will not come in contact with other groups. 

T he i s - s u e came to light after Bangalore police interrogated those arrested by the Ahmedabad police, including two persons picked from Bijapur. 

The pattern in the H o n n a l i - H u bl i case, Belgaum 

arrests and the Ahmedabad case was that each group had held a series of meetings. After a detailed interrogation , the police discovered that three or four names were present in almost all the meetings. But they were not known properly by the arrested persons since they only came in the meetings and nowhere else. The police have pinned their hopes on these common names to find out the exact nature of activities that SIMI's Nagori group have been doing. The arrested persons have so far been unable to tell much about these elusive common names. A week ago, a team of police officials were sent 

to Gujarat to get clues on the serial blasts in Bangalore on July 25. Home minister V S Acharya last Monday had also confirmed the arrest of a SIMI member from Karnataka. 

"We have vital clues on the blasts here. The team will probe whether those arrested have links with the Bangalore blasts," Acharya had said. He had said the Bangalore police will work closely with the Gujarat police