KOTTAYAM: Erattupetta native PA Shibili and his younger brother PA Shaduli, the Malayali siblings who have been sentenced to death in the Ahmedabad blast case, are undergoing severe imprisonment in connection with the Vagamon weapons training camp case.

Shibili was an IT professional and Shaduli was an electronics engineer. The locals came to know about them only when they were arrested for terrorism. After completing a Diploma in Computer and Hardware, Shibili worked for various companies in Thiruvananthapuram and Bengaluru. Later, he moved to Mumbai.

The brothers were arrested on 26 March 2008 while they were traveling from Kerala to Indore. Although they were part of various organizations, both were seen as naive youngsters by the locals. According to the probe team, Shibili, a computer expert, and Shaduli were among the masterminds behind the Ahmedabad blast case.

The NIA has found that various bomb blasts in the country were planned at the Vagamon SIMI camp. The Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI), a banned terrorist organisation, organized a weapons training camp in Vagamon from December 10 to 22, 2007. In May 2018, an NIA court in Kochi sentenced 18 people, including two, to 27 years in prison.

Abdul Kareem, the father of Shibili and Shaduli, said he was confident that his children were innocent. He said that he will challenge the verdict in the Supreme Court.

Targeted Modi and Amit Shah

NEW DELHI: The special court, which termed the Ahmedabad serial blast case as the rarest of rare, stated that the accused had aimed to kill more people. In a 7,000-page judgment, the court noted that the accused planned to destroy two hospitals with the intent to kill more people.

The accused had targetted the then Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, former ministers Amit Shah, Anandiben Patel and Nitin Patel. The court also pointed out that all the accused cooperated with each other at each stage of the conspiracy. Several meetings were held in Ahmedabad, Vadodara and Surat between 2002 and 2008. They lived in rented houses and hotels under false names and made bombs. The accused had planned to conduct similar attacks against Narendra Modi and Amit Shah. They managed to escape by a whisker. The court also stated that 'Jihad', a sacred word, was being misused by terrorist organizations against the nation.