MUMBAI: The Mumbai Police have sounded a high alert and told all 93 police stations, particularly in South Mumbai, to conduct searches, following intelligence inputs that five members of the banned Students Islamic Movement of India ( SIMI ), who had fled from Khandwa jail in Madhya Pradesh in October, are likely to carry out terror strikes in the city and other parts of the country.

Police commissioner Rakesh Maria issued directions to all the police stations, crime branch and special units to conduct nakabandis, combing and search operations of shady lodges and rental houses in slum pockets or congested areas. The police, through posters, have appealed to the public for information on the accused and get suitably rewarded.

Posters of the five have been pasted at bus-stops, railway stations, hospitals and electricity bill collection centres. Anti-terror cells of police stations have also been told to conduct nakabandis and checks on two-wheelers. Pydhonie, Dongri and JJ police have checked around 3,000 bikers in the last two days.

Dharavi, Agripada and Govandi are some of the areas cops are focusing on.

“The alert came from the central government and almost all security agencies, including the railway police, have been told to be on high alert,’’ said an officer. The railways have been told to be extra vigilant as the accused may travel by train from one state to another.

The Anti-Terrorism Squad is trying to track down the five, who are also suspected to be involved in the July 10, 2014, blast in Pune. Five persons were seriously injured when a low-intensity bomb on a motorcycle exploded. “We have identified the group after scanning CCTV footage of the suspects in Bijnor, Uttar Pradesh,” the officer said.

Six SIMI members, who were lodged in Khandwa jail, had fled after breaking the toilet window and scaling a 14-foot wall on October 2.

Mohd Aijazuddin, Aslam Khan, Shaikh Mehboob, Zakir Hussain and Amjad Khan were getting financial help from an alleged SIMI operative in Jabalpur. Abu Faisal was arrested a month later. The five had been held in June 2011 for murdering policemen, attempts to murder and bank robberies.

