Mastermind still in solitary confinement

BHOPAL: SIMI commander Abu Faisal, who masterminded the twin jailbreaks in Khandwa and Bhopal, remains in solitary confinement in

Bhopal

prison, but his entire gang was eliminated in Monday's encounter.

Faisal, alias Doctor, had allegedly hammered out several terror blueprints, including plotting the assassination of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, freeing 911 accused scientist

Aafia Siddiqui

from FBI custody and strategizing the bombing of Sabarmati Jail to free Simi chief Safdar Nagori. Faisal was first arrested by the Indore police in 2006 when he had gone to meet a Simi undertrial at a city hotel. He was later freed on bail. The MP police didn't take him seriously till the

Gujarat

police came searching for him in connection with the July 26, 2008 Ahmedabad blasts for allegedly supplying vehicles to trigger explosives.

A report by the MP police reveals that Simi operatives Mohammad Amzad Khan, Sheikh Mehboob and Zakir were part of several conspiracies hatched by the Faisal module after the 2013 jailbreak. They were arrested in Odisha in February, 2016.

Faisal had formed a separate wing within Simi to fund terror. After his arrest, Faisal revealed a plot to eliminate then Union home minister

Sushilkumar Shinde

, who he believed accountable for the arrest and alleged harassment of several Muslim youths. The Allahabad high court judges who gave the verdict in the Babri Masjid case were also on their hit list, he confessed.