Indian Mujahideen

The IM was first suspected as an indigenous terrorist outfit five years ago after the July 7, 2006, Mumbai local train serial blasts that killed 166 people.

Top leadership and cadre of IM is drawn mostly from SIMI (Students Islamic Movement of India). A meeting in Hubli, Karnataka, in April 2007 is believed to be the starting point of IM.

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P ipe Road, Kurla West, Mumbai, is not an address anyone would aspire to. Filth and squalor stretch for miles on end, and the stench rises up to the structures that pass off for homes. In this underbelly of Mumbai lies a locked-and-sealed door. It used to be the office of the now-proscribed Students’ Islamic Movement of India (SIMI). A few paces away stands Qadri building, where Ismail Shahbandari owned two rooms. Last known, he had leased them...