Runaway Simi operatives in Karnataka?

NEW DELHI: Intelligence agencies seem to be close to nabbing the three surviving Simi fugitives from Khandwa jail whose involvement is suspected in Bijnor and Chennai train blasts.
Sources said last week agencies tracked their location to Karnataka where the fugitives are frequently moving from one place to the other. It is also feared that the group is preparing for an attack.
This, however, is not the first time that the group’s location has been traced in the state. Towards the close of 2014 too the fugitives were tracked to the state. They were known to have taken shelter in the Hubli-Hospet belt.
Notably, Hubli has figured in terror crosshairs earlier as well with intelligence agencies claiming that one of the first Simi training camps was held near Hubli in 2007 under the leadership of Safdar Nagori, Shibli Peedical and Abdus Subhan Qureshi alias Tauqeer.
Sources said the group, though under constant surveillance, has remained elusive due to minimum use of modern communication. “They frequently change their numbers and engage in very limited conversation over the phone. They rarely use the same number and phone for two communications,” said an official privy to the developments.
The three fugitives have been identified as Zakir Hussain alias Sadiq Badrul Hussain, Mehboob alias Guddu Ismail Khan and Amzad Ramzan Khan. The trio had escaped from Khandwa jail in Madhya Pradesh in October 2013 along with three other SIMI operatives identified as Aslam Ayub Khan, Aizazuddin alias Aizaz Mohammed Azizuddin and Abu Faizal alias Doctor.
While Doctor was arrested two months after his escape, Aizazuddin and Aslam were killed in an encounter in Nalgonda (Telangana) early this year.
The fugitives’ location was traced near the site of the blast in Bijnor in September 2014. CCTV footage later confirmed their presence in the house the blast took place and Mehboob is alleged to have been injured in the blast. The group’s mobile tower location was also found at the Chennai railway station when a blast took place on a Bangalore-Guwahati train at the Chennai Central Station in May 2014. The group is also suspected to be involved in a February 2014 Karimnagar bank robbery and a blast near a police station near Dagdusheth Halwai temple in Pune last year.
Though the December 2014 Bengaluru Chruch Street blast was also being attributed to them, intelligence sources indicate that some other local groups may be involved in the blast.