Karnataka, Maharashtra and Rajasthan have been specifically alerted and told that the terrorists could be hiding in the three states, they said. (TOI photo)

NEW DELHI: A group of six SIMI cadres, including five who escaped from Khandwa jail in October last year, has been tasked by Pakistan’s ISI to unleash terror acts in India, most likely in Karnataka, Maharashtra and Rajasthan.Issuing an alert to the states in this regard, the Central intelligence agencies on Monday released photographs and other details of members of this SIMI module, also suspected behind the Chennai railway station blast in May, the explosion near Pune’s Dadguseth’s temple in July and, more recently, the blast at a Bijnore house in September.A senior official privy to the intelligence alert said it warned of possible strikes by the SIMI module – comprising the five escaped jailbirds Aijajuddeen, Aslam, Amjad Khan, Zakir Hussan and Mehboob Guddu, besides Salik alias Sallu who joined the group recently – after it was learnt that it was in touch with Pakistan-based elements “who had tasked it to undertake terrorist acts in India”. Also living with six SIMI cadres is Mehboob Guddu’s mother Najma Bee; though not directly involved in a terror act, she could face the charge of aiding and abetting activities of a terror outfit.“Alert is specific to the states of Rajasthan, Karnataka and Maharashtra…attack is also possible in certain other cities of India,” the official said quoting from the warning issued to the states.According to intelligence sources, the five SIMI cadres involved in the Khandwa jailbreak have been moving from one state to escape surveillance. In a trail that extends across Uttar Pradesh, Telangana, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and West Bengal, the group is known to have indulged in bomb making, robberies, looting banks and planting bombs wherever it senses a terror opportunity. During their stay at Karimnagar in Andhra Pradesh (now Telangana) in February this year, some members of the SIMI module allegedly robbed Rs 46 lakh from SBI’s Chopaddandi branch and fled on motorcycles. The police are now probing if a part of that money had made its way to Burdwan, where a bomb killed two Jamaat ul Mujahideen (Bangladesh) cadres on October 2.The last known location of the SIMI module was at Hospet in Karnataka. It was tracked there sometime in September this year.“After that, there is little idea about their whereabouts. Recently, the agencies stumbled upon intercepts from across the border tasking the SIMI module with carrying out a “big project” in India,” said an officer.The Centre is taking the intercepts very seriously and has alerted the states, particularly Karnataka, Maharashtra and Rajasthan, to step up vigil as well as efforts to track the absconding SIMI men.The five SIMI activists – lodged in Khandwa jail for offences ranging from robbery to policemen’s murder to terrorism – had, along with two others, staged a daring jailbreak in October 2013 by scaling the 14-ft prison wall.Till hours after the escape, the authorities had remained clueless. One of the escaped prisoners surrendered the next day, while another named Faisal was nabbed in December last year from Barwani in Madhya Pradesh. In the past few weeks, investigators have come close more than once to nabbing the SIMI module, only to miss it by a hair’s breadth.Read this story in Hindi