Author: S Gurumurthy
Publication: The New Indian Express
Date: December 2, 2007
URL: http://www.newindpress.com/Column.asp?ID=IE620060724123645&P=old
It was founded in the year 1977. Not by a
religious leader, but by an English-educated academic, Mohammed Ahamadullah
Siddiqui. He was a professor not at some Alighar University in India, or in
Islamabad, but at Western Illinois University in the US, a country of free
thought that claims to melt people of diverse ideas into a wholesome one.
He was professor of Journalism and Public Relations. For which goals did the
professor found it? Leave the first two goals. Its third goal is `Jehad' for
the cause of Islam.
Since Jehad is also a programme for self-purification
of the adherents, one may assume that this is not to harm others. But read
more. It does not believe in nation-state or in national constitutions. Loyal
to no nation, it disregards the very nation it operates in. Not just that.
It is explicitly against Hinduism and other anti-Islamic cultures. More. It
regards idol worship as a `sin' - meaning that Hindus are sinners. Not yet
full stop. Goes further, considers terminating idol worship as a Holy duty!
Significantly, it is founded not for, nor
in, Saudi Arabia, where there are no idols, no idol worshippers. It is founded
for, and functions in, India with more than 85 percent of population believing,
worshipping idols. It would like them eliminated. Is it just an extremist
body, which seeks to achieve its ends by intense, and extended preaching,
or conversions? No. It does not just verbalise, but, as evidence available
in the public domain establishes, actually weaponises terror. It openly celebrates
Osama Bin Laden as a true Mujahid (religious soldier) in Jehad (religious
war) for the `Umma' (world Muslim community). Its name: SIMI, the Students
Islamic Movement of India, India's first home grown, pan-Indian, terrorist
body.
Last April, SIMI completed three decades of
existence. It is said to have 400 full-timers and 20000 casuals. Its members
retire at 30. SIMI thus means youth in their primes for terror. What is its
scoreboard in terror? Even before the Mumbai blasts, between August 2000 -
when its maiden blast in Sabarmati train took place - and July 2006, it had
accomplished five bomb blasts to its credit! But its peaking success was in
Mumbai, on that fateful evening on 7/11, when it bombed and eliminated some
200 innocents and hospitalised over 700 in just 25 minutes! Apart from detonating
bombs, it has other deadly skills too.
Between March 2001 and January 2004 it triggered
Hindu-Muslim riots in three places. SIMI cadres also massacred five policemen
and an Additional District Magistrate in Kanpur - a clear war against the
state! SIMI has other deadly hobbies, like procuring, moving, storing arms,
ammunitions, explosives like RDX, etc. In some eight incidents reported in
the media, SIMI cadres were found in possession of explosives, weapons and
papers incriminating them in violence in different parts of India, from Bengal
to Gujarat.
It has global links. Anwar Ali, a lecturer
in National Defence Academy at Khadakvasala in Maharashtra - yes, in the defence
academy to train soldiers to provide security to the people of India - was
found to be a SIMI activist! Found involved in Mulund bomb blasts in April
2003, he was arrested! Involved with him in the Mulund blast was a life convict,
convicted for terror, whose sentence was reduced by the Supreme Court to ten
years, released from Sabarmati jail.
Founded by a US-based professor, SIMI attracts
academics in defence institutes to unrepentant life convicts for its agenda
to kill. However, SIMI, whose ban was overdue, was banned only after the 9/11
terror on the US. Till then, even the NDA government had no guts to ban SIMI.
Why?
SIMI had gathered high political clout. It
has assumed different labels like National Democratic Front, Islamic Youth
Centre, Tamil Muslim Munnetra Kazhagam (TMMK) and forged close links with
the `secular' political spectrum from Mulayam's Samajwadi Party to Sonia's
Congress Party.
Result, not just Mulayam but even his political
adversary Sonia too, is among its admirers, being expectants for Muslim votes.
In her speech in Parliament in March 2002, and later in June 2002, Sonia attacked
the NDA government for banning SIMI. Earlier, in September 2001 itself, her
party had opposed the ban.
Thanks to Sonia's defence, the Congress-led
UPA government had to allow the ban to lapse in September 2005. But soon it
had to eat its words, re-impose the ban in February 2006. Thus it allowed
the terror outfit free run for five months! Now the Sonia Congress-led Maharashtra
government has admitted that it is SIMI that masterminded the July train blast
in Mumbai. It has arrested over 200 SIMI activists! Yet, it was the Sonia-chosen
president of the UP Congress Party, Salman Kurshid, who was SIMI's advocate
in courts pleading for lifting its ban. It was Sonia herself who was the advocate
for SIMI in Parliament.
Fortunately, the Supreme Court rejected Salman
Kurshid's pleas in June 2006 and Manmohan Singh government rejected the pleas
of Sonia and re-imposed the ban in February 2006! Thus, despite Sonia in Parliament,
Salman in courts, thanks to the Supreme Court, SIMI, India's high security
risk, has been exposed as a terror outfit.
Comment:gurumurthy@epmltd.com
