Crackdown on SIMI was on the cards

By Gaurav Vivek Bhatnagar

The ban imposed on the Students Islamic Movement of India by the Union Home Ministry has come as a shot in the arm of the Delhi police which had participated with the Intelligence Bureau in countrywide raids on the organisation in July. Though the students group is again using the religion card for criticising the ban -- just as it had done to oppose the raids -- the fact that several non-BJP ruled states such as Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra had sought the ban has changed the equation this time round.

Officers of the Special Cell of Delhi police believe that the ban was on the cards. They claim that the organisation had links with militant organisations such as the Hizb-ul-Mujahideen and were involved in several cases of violence.

It was on July 31 that the Union Home Secretary, Mr Kamal Pande, had announced the arrest of 23 persons in raids at Jalgaon, Hyderabad, Delhi and Kanpur. Four of these persons were arrested from Delhi, of whom two were SIMI activists, allegedly caught along with two Hizb-ul-Mujahideen militants.

Interrogation of arrested Hizb militant Gulzar Ahmed Wani had revealed how SIMI brainwashed the youth, the gullible among whom were roped in by the militant outfits for carrying out terrorist strikes.

SIMI, which published a number of newspapers and magazines such as the Malayalam fortnightly `Vivekay' from Kerala, Tamil `Yasif Sethi Meda' from Chennai, Gujarati `Ikra' from Ahmedabad, Bengali monthly `Rupantar' from Calcutta, Hindi magazine `Tehriq' from Indore, Urdu half-yearly `Al-Harkat' from Delhi and `Shaheen Times' from Ujjain, was also accused of spreading communal hatred by the Government.

The Delhi police, which is at present on the trail of SIMI activists in the Capital, claims that most of the office-bearers of the organisation hail from Uttar Pradesh and the organisation had earlier floated a unit in Delhi under the name of SIM Jamia Milia to spread its influence among the students of the Capital.

The press secretary of the organisation, Mr Shahbaz Hussain, however, asserts that SIMI ``strives for character-building of students and youth according to the teachings of Islam'' and denied any spread of ``hate literature'' by the organisation. And SIMI general secretary, Safdar Nagori, insists that the actions against his organisation are influenced by the Sangh Parivar.

But the police continue to hold the view that under the garb of student activities the organisation has been indulging in anti- India activities. In the latest development, the police sources said, the UP government even provided videography tapes of a SIMI meeting in Baharaich in which the speakers justified the Kashmiri separatist movement as a jehad and hailed Osama bin Laden -- who had declared war on India some time ago -- as the ``champion and true saviour of Islam''.

This apparently precipitated action against SIMI which has been banned under the Unlawful Activities Act of 1967. Since the chief of SIMI, Shahid Badr, had while addressing the Bahraich meeting also allegedly criticised India for supporting the United States in its pursuit of Osama bin Laden, sources say the Government finally decided to crack down on the organisation.

Police sources say they have evidence against various SIMI leaders including former president, Abdul Mobin, who was found to be in close contact with the Hizb-ul- Mujahideen. In fact, they claim that upon Mobin's arrest in connection with the Agra blasts late last year, Wani -- who had been working under the instructions of Srinagar-based Hizb commander of Pakistani origin, Fayyaz alias Saifullah -- had even sat on a hunger strike.

While a number of office-bearers of SIMI are being arrested all over the country right now, in August a joint team of Jalgaon and Delhi police had arrested the office secretary of SIMI, Mohammed Waqar-ul-Hasan, from South Delhi on the charge of sedition for conspiring with Hizb terrorists who, in the name of ``jehad'', had caused a blast in Nagpur.

The police alleged that SIMI activists had also been involved in riots and one of them, Mumtaz Ahmed -- who was arrested in Delhi along with Wani, Mohiuddin and Firoz Rafi on July 30 night -- had actually shot dead the ADM of Kanpur during the riots.

With the Government coming out in the open against SIMI, it remains to be seen if the students' organisation will be able defend its actions before the special tribunal which will have to ratify the ban within six months. As for now, most of its office- bearers have either been arrested or have gone underground to avoid arrest, so that they may be able to present their ``point of view''.

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