Techies give logistics support to SIMI, LeT
N D Shiva Kumar, The Times of India
February 28, 2008

The radical techies, who work under the banner of MITA and turned the Garden City into a web, are said to have several members of the banned Students’ Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) working for them.

Police investigating the terror network in Karnataka suspect the group was providing logistic support like crucial data and financial support to the SIMI and Lashkar-e-Taiba.

MITA’s existence was detected during surveillance after an incident in 2006. In January 2006, immediately after the attack on the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) on December 28, 2005, four young men were found photographing a software company office. Security guards spotted them and when they tried to quiz them, the four escaped in a car.

However, security personnel had noted down the vehicle number. The city crime branch found that the car belonged to a bookshop owner, who on interrogation, said he had sold the car to a doctor residing on Bannerghatta road. But the investigation hit a dead end as the doctor was unaware of the culprits.

The city police convened a meeting and cautioned the IT firms. The same year in July, Mumbai police came to Bangalore and arrested Muzammil Sheikh, a software engineer with a MNC, in connection with the 2006 train bombings in Mumbai. He had links with the Lashkar-e-Taiba. While probing these incidents, the police stumbled upon MITA.

What Now?

IT companies in Bangalore are on the terror radar. All these days, the police and the company managements were focusing on external security. With the unearthing of this disturbing trend, both have a daunting task.

After collecting all details, the city central crime branch officials are working at unearthing both SIMI and MITA networks in the city. Meanwhile, senior police officials said that the IT firms had been asked to step up internal security and closely monitor and report any suspicious behaviour by the employees.