By IANS,
New Delhi : India Friday declared Indian Mujahideen, a shadowy front of the outlawed Students Islamic Movement of India and Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) operatives, as a terror outfit and banned it under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.
“The central government believes that the Indian Mujahideen, all its formations and front organisations, are involved in terrorism,” a home ministry notification said.
The group, it added, has been put on the list of banned terror outfits, under the anti-terror law. With this, the list of banned outfits now extends to 35.
The India Mujahideen first came into the limelight when it claimed responsibility for multiple blasts in various temples in Varanasi in mid-2006. They launched another serial terror bombing in lower courts in Lucknow, Faizabad and Varanasi cities of Uttar Pradesh Nov 23, 2007, taking a heavy toll of human lives.
The explict target of this attack were lawyers, who had beaten up a Jaish-e-Mohammed terrorist in Faizabad court and had refused to appear for him.
This was followed by first-ever terror attack on Jaipur May 13, 2008, when nine bombs were triggered within 15 minutes, killing over 60 people and injuring over 200 others.
The IM operatives struck again on July 25, 2008, targeting Bangalore, with nine serial explosions, killing two people and injuring over 20 others. They subsequently targeted Ahmedabad July 26, 2008, with 21 blasts within 70 minutes, killing 56 people and injuring over 200 others.
This was followed by the September 13, 2008, serial bombing of Delhi, where five synchronised blasts within a few minutes killed 30 people and left injured over 100 others.
The group’s most recent strike was in Pune when it exploded a bomb at the German Bakery in the city Feb 13 this year, killing 17 people and injuring at least 60 others.
Another hallmark of the outfit was that it often used to intimate media houses of the impending blasts minutes before their occurrence.
The last outfit to be banned by the Indian government was the Akhil Bharat Nepali Ekta Samaj (ABNES) in May 2009.