Author: Pramod Kumar Singh
Publication: The Pioneer
Date: July 13, 2006
[Note from the Hindu Vivek Kendra: In a statement
to the media, on September 28, 2001, the Congress Party said that the action
to ban SIMI by the then NDA government was ill-timed, and that it was not
in the national interest to take any steps that would disturb the domestic
scene. In June 2002, the Congress President, Smt Sonia Gandhi, had opposed
the ban on SIMI. As per an article by Tapan Das in The Hindustan Times (April
23, 2004), both the Congress and the Left Front attempted to court SIMI with
a view to get the Muslim votes.]
With intelligence bureau (IB) reports confirming
that cadres of Students Islamic Movement in India (SIMI) were responsible
for the Mumbai train blasts, the Centre has told all the State Governments
to launch a crackdown on SIMI cadres and their sympathisers.
A powerful politician of Mumbai, who enjoys
a large following among SIMI operatives is under the scanner as agencies have
evidence of his possible involvement in these blasts.
IB is in possession of evidence linking SIMI
with Pakistan-based terrorist outfit Lashkar-e-Tayyeba (LeT). Lashkar has
been taking the help of SIMI in carrying out terror activities in India. Intelligence
sources say, the coordinated blasts in the local trains could not have been
possible without the active involvement of SIMI.
Forces behind the creation of SIMI were itching
to make their presence felt after the Supreme Court on July 6 2006 upheld
the ban on this organisation, rejecting a petition that claimed that the organisation
had not been found to engage in any terrorist activities.
It may be recalled, SIMI was first banned
in September 2001 by NDA Government under section 3(1) of the Unlawful Activities
(Prevention) Act, 1967. The ban was necessitated after the security agencies
furnished proof linking SIMI to Lashkar and suggesting that it had become
a visible threat to national security.
Before the Central ban, SIMI was linked with
the Jamaat-e-Islami (JeI) in Bangladesh and its students' wing, the Islami
Chhatra Shibir (ICS).
Intelligence sources now say old connections
are still continuing and it has established with the Harkat-ul-Jehad-al Islami(HUJI)
of Bangladesh.
Investigations by the Uttar Pradesh Police
into the July 28, 2005, Shramjeevi Express explosion near Jaunpur and the
Varanasi serial blasts of March 7, 2006, indicated the roles of SIMI's full-time
cadres and HUJI's agents. The prime conspirator of the Varanasi blasts, Waliullah,
the Pesh Imam of Phulpur in Allahabad, who was arrested on April 5 near Gosainganj,
on the outskirts of Lucknow, was a SIMI area commander.
Aurangabad, Malegaon, Jalgaon and Thane and
Mumbai in Maharashtra have remained SIMI stronghold. It has spread its tentacles
in the madrasas of Shirol and Udgam in Kolhapur, Jalgaon, Nashik, Thane, Sholapur,
Kolhapur, Gadchiroli, Nanded, Aurangabad, Malegaon and Pune have been brought
under the scanner for SIMI activities. There are more than 3,000 madrassas
in the State, with about 200,000 students. According to an intelligence estimate
there are as many as 500 seminaries in Mumbai alone and a majority of these
madrasas are SIMI hotbed.
Lashkar is believed to have carried an aggressive
recruitment drive in Maharashtra and Gujarat and reports say SIMI is behind
this manpower drive. The outfit is believed to be specially targeting well-educated
and technically sound persons for its operations. At least four of the 11
LeT operatives held from Aurangabad and Beed were well educated and technically
competent.