Author: Tanu Sharma
Publication: The Indian Express
Date: July 31, 2006
URL: http://www.indianexpress.com/story/9578.html
The Students Islamic Movement of India (Simi),
which was banned for the first time in 2001, has managed to keep its network
alive through clandestine activities and is regrouping cadres and reviving
the organisation. Its tentacles have spread across the globe from Bangladesh
to Riyadh and Chicago.
This startling disclosure has come from none
other than the Government of India in its written arguments before the Unlawful
Activities (Prevention) Tribunal, which is examining the legality of the ban
on the outfit. Delhi HC Judge Justice BN Chaturvedi heads the tribunal.
''Inputs received from intelligence agencies
indicate that despite the ban on 26 September 2003, SIMI has managed to keep
its network alive through clandestine activities and is regrouping and reviving
the organisation through pseudonymous fronts/organisations, clandestine meetings
and circulation of leaflets, posters and magazines, intra-organisational pan-
Islamic networking, etc,'' the Centre submitted.
The outfit, with its avowed objective to replace
Indian nationalism with international Islamic order, has been receiving funds
from Riyadh-based World Assembly of Muslim Youth and maintains close links
with the International Islamic Federation of Students Organisations of Kuwait.
SIMI has also been morally and financially supported by the Chicago-based
Consultative Committee of Indian Muslims. Besides, the banned outfit has also
collected a huge amount during the month of Ramzan from various parts of the
country, the Centre says, quoting Home Ministry officials who have deposed
before the tribunal.
Despite the ban, SIMI, the government says,
has established ''close pan-Islamic linkages with LeT cadres in carrying out
militant activities in the country. It also has links with the fundamentalist
Jamait-e-Islami of Bangladesh, which with its students wing Islamic Chatra
Shivir ''regularly attend meetings of SIMI held in West Bengal'', says the
Centre.
Intelligence inputs suggest SIMI members are
supporting Al-umma in Tamil Nadu, the Ganzim-Islahal-Muslameen and LeT ''and
advocating secession of Kashmir to Pakistan.''
''They have a strong support from Darsga-e-Jehad-e-Shahadat
of Hyderabad. Most of their members are also members of a new organisation
called Tehreek Tehfeen-e-Shaire-Islamia'', the Centre has disclosed. SIMI
cadres are still active in Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh,
Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and Kerala, it says and adds that in Ikhwan conferences,
its leaders took militant postures, ''used derogatory language for deities
of other religions and exhorted Muslims for jehad.''
SIMI was first banned and declared unlawful
in 2001, then in 2003 and for a third time in 2006.
tanu.sharma@expressindia.com
