ATS grilling suspected SIMI man
According to sources in the ATS, Zadil is the brother of Aamil Pervez, allegedly a senior operative of the SIMI.
Mumbai: The Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) is questioning an Indore-based suspected Students’ Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) member, Zadil Pervez, to verify if he had motivated Mumbra resident Tabrez Tambe (29) into leaving India in September 2016 to join the Islamic State (IS) in Libya.
Pervez is a businessman and was allegedly in touch with Tabrez over social networking sites including Facebook prior to his departure from India.
Tabrez, who did a course in cargo handing from Mumbai University, had told his family last September that he was going to Egypt to work as a cargo handling specialist with a private firm there. He later called up to tell his Mumbra-based family that he was in Libya and had joined the IS there, after which his younger brother Saud approached the ATS to inform it about his brother joining the terror outfit.
According to sources in the ATS, Zadil is the brother of Aamil Pervez, allegedly a senior operative of the SIMI. In 2008, Aamil was arrested by the Madhya Pradesh security officials, along with 12 other SIMI operatives including its then chief Safdar Nagori, for organising training camps in various places including Karnataka and is incarcerated currently.
The ATS, which reached Indore early last week, was acting on material seized from Tabrez’s email and social networking accounts, which the investigators had been able to access. “We suspect that Zadil was in touch with Tabrez till the day he left for Egypt and even after he moved to Libya. We are questioning him to check whether Zadil with his alleged SIMI links had a role in convincing him to join ISIS and if so why,” said an officer.
Tabrez had in September informed his brother Saud that he was not working in Egypt as he has told the family before leaving home, instead had joined IS and moved to Libya. Saud and the other family members, after having failed to convince him to return, contacted the state ATS who filed an FIR against Tabrez under sections of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act.