Author: Chandan Nandy
Publication: The Hindustan Times
Date: September 29, 2001
After the countrywide ban on the
Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI), the Centre plans to crack down
on illegal madrassas in several states, including Uttar Pradesh, which
serve as networks for ISI-backed terrorist groups.
This was decided at a meeting today
to review the internal security situation and the probable fallout of the
September 11 terrorist strikes in the United States.
The meeting was chaired by Union
Home Minister L.K. Advani, and attended by Home Secretary Kamal Pande,
Intelligence Bureau Director K.P Singh and other senior officials of the
ministry's internal security division. At the meeting, a plan was finalised
for action against madrassas, which have mushroomed in UP, Rajasthan, Gujarat,
Bihar and West Bengal, states bordering Pakistan, Nepal and Bangladesh.
According to sources, who participated
in today's meeting, the seminaries that have come up over the past five
to six years along the Indo-Nepal border are cause for the greatest concern.
The focus of the Centre's attention is on UP, Bihar and West Bengal, which
have borders with Nepal. The investigation into the activities of SIMI
had brought to light the fact that several "foreign elements" would cross
over into Indian territory and clandestinely meet SIMI leaders and activists.
There will also be a fresh study
on the number of madrassas functioning along the Indo-Pak, Indo-Nepal and
Indo-Bangla borders. It will be carried out by the IB with the assistance
of the state governments concerned.
Sources said that once the survey
is over, the security agencies will single out the "suspect" madrassas
which provide shelter to terrorists, fundamentalist and "anti-national"
elements and ISI agents. The IB already possesses a list of madrassas along
a 10-km border stretch which, according to officials, have become centres
for fomenting anti-national activities.
"Some of these seminaries were found
to have been used to store caches of weapons besides being convenient shelters
for the Pak ISI, Kashmir terrorists and fundamentalist elements visiting
India from Gulf countries," a senior official said. In fact, an earlier
IB report said Pakistan is "brainwashing Muslims in some of the border
states and clandestinely funding mosques and madrassas". The report identifies
over 500 illegally-built
madrassas in the five states.
The next step would be to choke
foreign funds to organisations in India which utilise them to construct
madrassas.
Sources also expressed concern at
the communal situation in the country. The latest IB report for the period
January 1 to September 15 says that 443 incidents of communal violence
resulting in 150 deaths (66 Hindus, 83 Muslims) were recorded.
In the evening, Pande briefed the
media. He said that the government had evidence of SIMI's links with Osama
bin Laden's al Qaeda. He also said it had links with Hamas, the Palestinian
militant organisation.
Pande said that the SIMI ban was
not connected to the September 11 attacks in the US, but cited the "lauding
of Bin Laden as the quintessential mujahid" as one of the causes for the
ban.
Pande also rejected demands for
a ban on the Bajrang Dal. He said the Centre has "no information" on whether
it indulges in unlawful activities.
