Even before Narendra Modi could be sworn in as Prime Minister of the country, those not happy with his absolute victory have begun to issue threats to his life. The first such case has been reported from Bhopal where banned outfit Student Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) operatives openly shouted slogans, “Ab ki baar Modi ka number”, “Taliban Zindabad” within the district court premises where they were produced for a hearing on May 16. According to Bhopal police and eye-witnesses, 18 jailed SIMI operatives including its Madhya Pradesh head and terror accused Abu Faisal raised pro-Taliban and anti-Modi slogans after a hearing in terror-related cases and the Khandwa jailbreak.
Taking everyone by surprise, Faisal and his associates in the presence of the media and public raised inflammatory slogans hailing the Taliban and gave ‘threat’ to Modi — “Now, it is Modi’s turn.” As a result, the police booked them under Section 153 (B) and 294 A of the IPC for making assertions prejudicial to national integration and provocative statements.
“It reflects the panic among the accused, who have been allegedly involved in anti-national activities, especially with Modiji ascending to power at the Centre, who has made clear his zero-tolerance policy towards terrorism. Next time we have decided to have hearing within jail premises through video-conferencing,” Madhya Pradesh Home Minister Babulal Gaur told First Post.
“The moment the group saw media in the court premises, it started shouting slogans to draw attention. They have been booked for raising inflammatory slogans and we’re looking into the issue from the evidences gathered,” said Director General of Police, Madhya Pradesh, Nandan Dube.
The writing on the wall was clear much before the Lok Sabha polls; even before votes were cast during the Assembly polls in the five states in 2013. Ahead of the Vidhan Sabha election in Chhattisgarh, consecutive arrests of SIMI operatives allegedly linked to Indian Mujahideen (IM) in Raipur in 2013, exposed an alarming security condition in the state, which otherwise is known as a communally peaceful state, unlike MP which already has a base of SIMI operations.
Prior to Modi’s rally at Raipur on November 14, 2013 the sleeper cell consisting of SIMI members conducted a recee of the area, as the aim was to attack Modi during the rally. According to Chhattisgarh police, the key SIMI member Umer Siddiqui, who was arrested and used to run a coaching centre in Raipur city, was in touch with IM operatives who were allegedly involved in the Bodh Gaya and Patna blasts on July 7 and October 27, 2013 respectively.
“After failing in Patna, the objective of IM was to kill Narendra Modi in Raipur during the campaigning of Assembly polls as he was considered ‘anti-Islam’ by them, but they failed to execute the plan as Chhattisgarh police raided and arrested members of sleeper cells,” a central intelligence source said on condition of anonymity.
The Bhopal incident is a kind of warning, as the SIMI operatives wanted to make their presence felt,” said Anil Kamboj, ex-senior fellow, Institute for Defence Studies & Analysis, and an internal security expert.
During a panel discussion on CNN-IBN after the poll results were announced the Member of Parliament from Hyderabad, Asaddudin Owasi clearly expressed his displeasure over Modi as the next PM of India.
“The objective of these outfits would be to destabilise the government functioning by creating disturbances. The regrouping of SIMI operatives with other extremist forces can’t be ruled out,” an intelligence source said. The SIMI operatives, who raised inflammatory slogans in Bhopal, had earlier broken Khandwa jail in October 2013 and escaped, only to be re-arrested in December 2013.
Considering the Bhopal incident as an alarming case in point, former CBI director, Joginder Singh strongly feels that there should be a stringent law to tackle the growing terrorism in India. “In the present context, these terror modules are going for re-grouping to unleash terror in near future. Modi as PM should go whole-heartedly in bringing a strong law against terrorism and sedition charges, or else the nation would suffer as during the UPA regime due to vote bank politics,” Joginder Singh added.
-Debobrat Ghose (The writer is Delhi-based journalist, who writes on various national issues and specialises on Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh)
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