Terrorists using tier-2 cities as safe zones --- Ultras rent houses, rob banks for cash and steal bikes

By Udumula Sudhakar Reddy

Tier-two cities like Guntur, Anantapur, Rajahmundry, Mahbubnagar and Sangareddy are being used as shelter zones by terrorists. as there is very little surveillance there. The armed SIMI terrorists

arrested in February in Rourkela used to move about freely in both AP, TS and other states. They

lived in rented houses for almost three years after their MP jail break. Apart from robbing banks they also stole bikes. In TS, the suspects committed offences in Choppadandi in Karimnagar

and in Sangareddy and Mahbubnagar. In December 2013 SIMI activists Abu Faisal,

Aijajuddin, Aslam, Amjad, Zakir and Mahaboob escaped from a jail in Khandwa in MP.

After that they moved around in Maharasthra, Karnataka, Chhattisgarh, Odisha and in AP

and TS. They took the help of ex-SIMI cadres and inducted cadres like Saliq from Sambalpur

into their fold. They travelled by train, bus and bikes. A TS police source said, “After Abu Faisal’s arrest in December 2013 the other suspects went to Mahbubnagar. They stole three motorcycles in

Mahbubnagar Shadnagar and Kothakota and surveyed banks in and around Mahbubnagar town, but gave up efforts midway. Then they went to Warangal, Devarakonda and Khammam.

“Later, they took two rooms in Mankammatota  in Karimnagar and robbed `46 lakh from a

bank. After that they went to Peddapally by motorcycles and left the vehicles in the parking

area of the local RTC bus stand. From Peddapally, they went to Yadgir in Karnataka. They took a

room at Yadgir and shared the robbed amount of `46 lakh among them.”

After that the gang established its hideout at Rajahmundry in AP. The gang then met at RK

Beach in Visakhaptanam on March 1, 2015. Later, they shifted to Guntur. While at the Guntur hideout, they stole a motorcycle in Vijayawada. Aijaz and Aslam used to move around Vijayawada to

survey banks for robberies. Later, they decided to establish a base near Hyderabad.

Aijaj and Aslam visited Hyderabad three to four  times and took a house on rent in Sangareddy on

March 1, 2014. In March 2015, when police intercepted Aijaj and Aslam at Suryapet Hitech bus station, they opened fire and  killed two cops and took their weapons. After two days Aijaz and Aslam were seen on the outskirts of Arvapalli village in Nalgonda district. and killed. After the

shootout in August and September 2015, Amjad and Saliq went to Anantapur and stayed

there for 15 days. They committed theft of a motorcycle at Bellary in Karnataka and left for

Dhanbad.