Author: Atul Chandra
Publication: The Times of India
Date: July 13, 2006
URL: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1742869.cms
At a time when Mumbai police are on the lookout
for the Students' Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) members for their suspected
role in Tuesday's serial blasts, the Mulayam Singh Yadav government is contemplating
withdrawing the cases against them and setting them free.
A home department official is understood to
have written a letter to Kanpur police asking for possible implications of
withdrawing cases against 16 SIMI members facing various charges, "in
public interest".
All the 16, including SIMI's Uttar Pradesh
chief Mohammed Amir, were involved in Kanpur riots in 2001 in which a government
official on riot-control duty was also killed. That the UP government is taking
no cognizance of SIMI's involvement in Mumbai serial blasts should not surprise
anyone.
Mohammed Amir had told a newspaper that he
surfaced in Kanpur after remaining underground for five years because he found
that the atmosphere was now congenial for his surrender. Amir surrendered
before a Kanpur court on April 25 last.
He expected UP government to withdraw the
case of rioting filed against him by the Bajaria police and the government
is only coming up to his expectations. Amir, incidentally, is also the main
accused in the pressure cooker bomb blasts of Kanpur.
Amir has openly admitted that SIMI members
draw inspiration from terror mastermind Osama bin Laden who, according to
him, is not a terrorist. Arraigned as he is by a section of Muslims, one shouldn't
be taken aback by the softening of Mulayam government's approach towards SIMI.
For Mulayam's narrow political end of keeping
his Muslim votes intact and thwarting poachers like Imam Ahmed Bukhari and
Mayawati, the government seems willing to compromise the lives of the people
and the larger interest of the state.
Although the principal secretary, home, Satish
Chandra Agarwal says the ban is being strictly enforced, a senior police official
disputed his claim. Had the government been genuinely strict, the request
to consider withdrawal of cases against SIMI members would have been neither
made nor entertained, he asserted.
The state had initially refused to even support
Centre's ban on the organisation on the plea that it has not carried out any
terrorist activity in the state after 2005, although SIMI's hand in riots
and blasts in Kanpur and the Shramjeevi Express were recent enough.
The government's latest move follows in spite
of Supreme Court rejecting SIMI's petition against the ban imposed by the
Central government.
The officer pointed out that had the government's
stand on SIMI been firm, it would not have been possible for Amir to sneak
into Kanpur on April 22, stay in hiding for two days and quietly surrender
on the third day.
The CM is apparently ready to go to any extent
to garner Muslim support as he finds his party on a slippery wicket. With
the minister for Haj, Haji Yaqoob Qureshi, setting a deadline for him to do
something for Muslims and Imam Ahmed Bukhari floating a party , Mulayam is
facing trouble from within and outside.
With SIMI members active in Azamgarh, Mau,
Sant Ravidasnagar, Shahjehanpur, Moradabad, Rampur, Bhadohi, Siddharthnagar,
Gonda, Shravasti, Faizabad and Lucknow, Mulayam must be seeing sound political
prospects in these constituencies once the banned outfit is won over.
