Author: Sayantan Chakravarty
Publication: India Today
Date: October 15, 2001
At the best of times the Delhi-headquartered
Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) has advocated an Islamic India.
These aren't the best of times. Of late, the SIMI's young missionaries,
with their untamed beards and intolerant ideology, had begun to openly
extol the virtues of the Shah of Terror, Osama bin Laden. They spoke of
him as the champion of Islam, a 21st century messiah who would free the
"exploited Musalmaan everywhere, even in the 52 countries where Muslims
rule".
The SIMI also clandestinely built
fraternal ties with the Lashkar-e-Toiba and the Hizbul Mujahideen, two
of the deadliest ISI-backed militant outfits operating in the Kashmir Valley.
At crowded conferences, its leaders broadcast live inflammatory speeches
by Qazi Hussain, the radical Jamaat-e-Islami chief in Pakistan, and Sheikh
Mohammad Yasin, the Palestinian leader of the Hamas. Over the years, the
SIMI has also made its hatred for Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Prime
Minister A.B. Vajpayee and Home Minister L.K. Advani abundantly clear.
Alarmed by intelligence reports
from across the country in the past year, top officials in the Union Government,
including the chiefs of the Intelligence Bureau, Delhi Police and the Union
home secretary, held a series of meetings in September on how to handle
the SIMI. The conclusion was unanimous: it was time to act. The SIMI's
militant views and its ability to precipitate riotous situations, like
the one in Kanpur in March this year, were posing a threat to internal
security. On September 2 7, the Union Home Ministry announced a two-year
ban on the SIMI under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967. Says
Union Home Secretary Kamal Pande: "We have enough evidence to show that
the SIMI was engaged in activities contrary to national interests."
Some SIMI office-bearers might have
seen the ban coming. In an interview to INDIA TODAY (April 2, 2001), the
now absconding SIMI Secretary-General Safdar Nagori admitted knowledge
of intelligence tabs on the outfit but it didn't stop him from spouting
provocative remarks like "Osama has shown great character" or that "the
organisation has no regard for Gandhi or Nehru".
The ban order, meanwhile,
galvanised various state police departments into action. In a countrywide
swoop on the SIMI offices, including its two-storey head office at Zakir
Nagar in south Delhi, over 400 activists were arrested. Ninety of these
arrests were made in Uttar Pradesh, mainly in Lucknow and Kanpur, hotbeds
of' the SIMI's anti-national activities. Other arrests took place in West
Bengal, Delhi, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan
and Maharashtra. Among those held was Shahid Badr, the SIMI's vocal national
president. In Bihar, a reluctant administration, unwilling to rub Muslim
sentiments the wrong way, failed to make any arrests. The ban led to violent
protests by SIMI activists. In Lucknow and Kanpur, a panicky police force
had to resort to firing in which four youths were killed. Curfew was clamped
in many parts of these cities. In Bihar, demonstrations by the SIMI activists
were allowed by the Rabri Devi Government. At Zakir Nagar and other areas
in south Delhi, high tension prevailed when police scaled the SIMI's head
office and arrested a corporator for inciting violence.
If the Union Government's findings
on SIMI are anything to go by, the organisation has scant regard for the
secular agenda of the Indian Constitution. Its publication Islamic Movement
has carried provocative articles calling for the establishment of an Islamic
state in India. Concepts like secularism, democracy and nationalism have
been described as anti-Islamic. Some SIMI leaders have also been involved
in terrorist activities. Its Aligarh Muslim University secretary was arrested
for engineering bomb blasts at Agra just before former US president Bill
Clinton's visit in March 2000.
Established in 1977, the outfit
today has a cadre of 500 Ansars (regular student members), one lakh Ikhwans
(associate members), and 10 lakh Awans (aspiring members). It is generously
funded by "well wishers" in countries like Iran, Libya, Saudi Arabia and
Kuwait and derives sustenance from the Deobandi ideology, one that makes
up the Taliban diet. However, it is unlikely that the ban will curtail
SIMI's activities. As Mumbai's Mohammad F. Azam, regional president of
the Muslim League, says, "The ban will draw more hatred from the minority
community." Arif Kadri, president of SIMI's Gujarat chapter agrees, "We
are not an institution but a movement. The ban is only going to strengthen
us. "
At most, the outfit's wings may
be temporarily clipped. In the long run, cashing in on its strong ties
with militant outfits, the SIMI might become more organised and far more
violent than it is today. For the Government, the challenge lies in preventing
the SIMI-instigated bloodletting. Says Ashok Chand, DCP, Special Cell,
in charge of investigations in Delhi: "We will probe the SIMI's links with
pro-Pakistan militant outfits. "
Vajpayee, meanwhile, has been forced
to explain to Muslim leaders that the right is against terrorism, not Islam.
But political parties like the Samajwadi Party dependent heavily on Muslim
votes find it hard to swallow, especially since the Uttar Pradesh assembly
elections are a few months away. One thing, though, is clear: for the first
time in months, the Government has shown it is unwilling to toe a soft
line when it comes to radical groups whose sympathies lie across the border.
