From correspondents in Maharashtra, India, 08:33 PM IST

A Muslim activist who created a flutter after the Jaipur bomb blasts by disclosing that his weekly newspaper 'Iman Ki Awaz' had predicted the bombings now says that similar 'terror activities' are underway in Nagpur and other parts of Maharashtra.

'Workers of the banned Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) are indoctrinating youth and recruiting them in Vidarbha and elsewhere in Maharashtra for use in terrorist acts,' Mohammed Hameed Engineer, who heads the Indian Muslim Association 'Noori' (IMAN), told IANS.

IMAN, which claims to propagate Hindu-Muslim unity and runs a sustained campaign against terrorism through its mouthpiece 'Iman Ki Awaz', holds a view that the Wahabi sect among Muslims is mainly behind the terrorist activities across the world including India and that they have a hand in the blasts in Bangalore and Ahmedabad.

'Though SIMI is banned, its mother organisation Jamat-e-Islami is not and SIMI functionaries are active in Nagpur, Digras, Pusad, Umarkhed and Akola in Vidarbha besides Malegaon in western Maharashtra,' Engineer said.

While Digras in Yavatmal district was a scene of communal clashes last week and the other towns with sizeable Muslim population are known as 'sensitive' places, Nagpur, where the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) headquarters is always viewed to as a potential terrorist target, is considered a SIMI hotspot too.

Nagpur has meanwhile been placed on high alert with over 3,000 police personnel including 200 officers deployed at sensitive places including the RSS headquarters, Additional Commissioner of Police Babasaheb Kangale said.

(Staff Writer, © IANS)