How a single clue led to the arrest of a SIMI terrorist after 22-year manhunt

In a major crackdown, a special cell of the Delhi Police arrested Hanif Sheikh, an elusive member of the banned Students’ Islamic Movement of India (SIMI), on 22 February.

Described as the most notorious and wanted SIMI terrorist, the 47-year-old had been absconding for 22 years and was declared a proclaimed offender in 2002.

He was nabbed from Bhusawal in Maharashtra’s Jalgaon district, where he was a teacher in an Urdu school under a different identity, the police said.

Here’s a look at how he was arrested.

How was Hanif Sheikh arrested?

The Delhi Police’s Southern Range Special Cell had been trying to arrest Sheikh for four years. However, whenever police cracked down on SIMI’s activities, Sheikh would slip away from their hands, explained India Today.

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For those unversed, a case of sedition under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) was filed against him in 2001 at the New Friends Colony police station in the National Capital. A local court declared him a proclaimed offender in 2002, as per PTI.

Police said the SIMI magazine that Sheikh edited had his name printed as Haneef Hudai. This was the only lead available to the police, making it difficult to trace him.

“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,” Deputy Commissioner of Police (Special Cell) Alok Kumar told PTI.

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“Around 2.50 pm on 22 February, 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 added.

Who is he?

According to India Today, Sheikh joined SIMI in 1997.

He became highly radicalised after interacting with its members and started attending its weekly programmes and radicalising youths.

In 2001, then-SIMI President Sahid Badar appointed him as the editor of the group’s “Islamic Movement” magazine’s Urdu edition, where he wrote several provocative articles on Muslims in India.

He was based at the SIMI headquarters in Delhi’s Zakir Nagar. In September 2001, Delhi Police conducted a raid while SIMI members were addressing a press conference near their headquarters. Several members were arrested, but Sheikh and a few others escaped and went underground.

He then went to Bhusawal in Maharashtra’s Jalgaon, changing his location to evade arrest. He started working as an Urdu teacher at a school.

According to the report, he also admitted to having visited Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, and others. to radicalise young people to join SIMI.

After SIMI was banned, its senior members started a new organisation named “Wahadat-e-Islam.”

The DCP said that Sheikh was one of its think tank members and was allegedly involved in collecting money to finance both outfits, according to PTI.

Apart from the case filed against him in Delhi, there are four FIRs against Sheikh in Bhusawal. Police will now take him to Maharashtra, Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh to probe his role in other terrorist activities.

According to Odisha Bytes, Sheikh has three brothers, two sisters, a wife and three children.

Why is SIMI banned?

According to The Times of India, the SIMI was founded in 1977 in Aligarh by Mohammad Ahmadullah Siddiqui, professor of Journalism and Public Relations at Western Illinois University, with the agenda of Islamic extremism and turn India into an Islamic nation.

The organisation was first banned in 2001, when the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government was in power, and since then the ban has been extended periodically.

Members of SIMI have been involved in the Bhopal jail break in 2014, the M Chinnaswamy stadium blast in Bengaluru in 2014, and the Gaya bomb blast in 2017, the report said.

The organisation has been continuing its subversive activities and re-organising its activists who are still absconding, according to India TV, which cited a 5 February notification by the home ministry.

The SIMI has been found involved in fomenting terrorism, disturbing peace and communal harmony, to threaten the sovereignty, security, and integrity of Bharat,” the home ministry’s office posted on X.

With inputs from PTI