Safdar Nagori

Safdar Nagori (born 1969) was the General-Secretary of the Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI), an Islamist organization designated as a terrorist organization by the Government of India.

On 27 February 2017, a court in Indore sentenced Nagori to life imprisonment for possession of illegal arms, ammunition and explosives, and plotting terrorist activities.

Early life Nagori was born in Mahedpur village in the Ujjain district of Madhya Pradesh in 1969. His father Gahiruddhin Nagori worked in the Ujjain Police Crime Branch, and retired at the rank of Assistant Sub Inspector in 2005. Safdar Nagori graduated with a Masters in Journalism from Vikram University, Ujjain in 1999 and was a merit holder. While at the university, he became state president of SIMI.

Beliefs and ideology In an interview with Sayantan Chakravarty in April 2001, five months before SIMI was banned by the government, he expressed his views.

When SIMI was banned in September 2001, Safdar Nagori told BBC that allegations that the organization had links with Islamic militant separatist groups were baseless.

Militant activity According to Indian newspaper Daily News and Analysis, Nagori became radicalized after the demolition of the Babri Masjid in 1992, and subsequent communal riots. He joined SIMI in 1993. His father, Gahiruddhin, disowned his son after learning of his activities.

In 2001, Nagori fell out with SIMI leadership. While several SIMI leaders urged the group to abandon terrorism and focus on academic and religious activities, Nagori advocated continuing terrorist activities. Nagori absconded shortly after SIMI was proscribed as terrorist organization by the Government of India on 27 September 2001.

Conviction and sentencing Safdar Nagori was arrested by Madhya Pradesh Police from a flat in Sanyogitaganj, Indore on 26 March 2008. Ten other SIMI militants, including his brother Kamruddin Nagori, were also arrested in the operation. Following a week of interrogation of the accused, they revealed the location of a farmhouse in Choral, 35 km from Indore, which was used as a training camp by SIMI militants. The police were told the camp trained SIMI members from Jharkhand, Kerala, Karnataka and some other states in physical exercise, combat and organisation philosophy. Police found arms, ammunition, radical literature in Urdu and Hindi and explosives at the farmhouse and arrested two more militants. Further investigations revealed the existence of SIMI's women's wing called Shaheen Force. Police also found 122 super-explosive gelatine sticks, 100 detonators and switchboards buried underground in Gawali village.

Nagori, and the 10 other militants, were charged with sedition, possession of illegal arms, ammunition and explosives, and plotting terrorist activities. The laws violated include the relevant sections of the Arms Act, the Explosive Substances Act, the IPC, and the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act. The NIA chargesheet alleged that the accused participated in a "secret training camp" involving shooting practice, explosives training, besides "classes on jihad in India". On 15 May 2018, an NIA Court in Kochi convicted Nagori under different sections of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, the Explosive Substances Act and section 120-B (criminal conspiracy) of the IPC. Special NIA Judge Kauser Edappagath sentenced Nagori to 7 years rigorous imprisonment. The sentence will run concurrently with his life term.