Author: Maloy Krishna Dhar
Publication: Maloy Krishna Dhar
Date: September 25, 2008
URL: http://maloykrishnadhar.com/simi-the-open-and-hidden-faces-of-indian-jihad
History is not the graveyard of the past.
It is the mother of present and womb for the future. Most current event analysers
tend to disregard the history and fail to link the present with the past.
The same mistakes are being committed by certain section of the media which
claims to be the fathers of sting-journalism. Small people attempting to paint
a sinner as saint commit colossal mistakes.
A Nation's unpreparedness for colossal natural
disasters like tsunami and earthquakes are somewhat pardonable. However, strategic
unpreparedness to anticipate, analyse, estimate and visualise threats and
disasters arising out of political and administrative naïveté
and adoption of a fire-fighting attitude to visibly advancing political, military,
proxy-war and jihadi cyclones cannot be pardoned even if the elasticity of
democracy and tolerance are extended to infinity.
This observation is more relevant to certain
media coverages and attitude of certain political parties. Union ministers
Lalu Yadav and Rambilas Paswan sang paean of the SIMI and they were accompanied
by Mulayam Singh Yadav even after the Supreme Court branded SIMI as a 'terrorist
organisation.' They were joined by the so-called Shahi Imam of Delhi's Jama
Masjid and other several other Muslim leaders who visited the village hoe
of Abul Basher after his arrest in connection with Ahmedabad serial bombings.
Such blatant communal display does not repair the damagee that continues to
widen. Such vote-bank tear-shedding by Union Cabinet Ministers weakens the
very foundation of history and pushes the country towards disintegration.
Once upon a time one Jagat Seth had decided that his business interest was
higher than political interest of Bengal. He was ably supported by Mir Zafar.
Seth had even loaned Rs. 2 crores to fortune seeker clerk Robert Clive. Do
our ministers and leaders like to compete with them? Have they no sense of
history?
Present India, was born out of communal strife,
bitterness of Muslim separatism and sky-full of hatred for everything Hindu.
Those were the underlying poisonous fuel with which Jinnah flew down to Karachi
to be crowned as the Shaenshah of the new Muslim Homeland-Pakistan. Sixty
one years after the clinical operation desired by Jinnah was accomplished,
his dreamland lay in tatters, the subcontinental Muslims, nearly 500 million,
continue to reel under privation, religious bigotry, economic backwardness
and suffer from the same old canopy of 'living together separately.'
This article is not the correct space to unfold
the entire history of pains that hurt the people of the subcontinent. However,
certain forces created by the seeds of hatred and separateness can be examined
in the background of the poisonous clouds that had continued to haunt the
subcontinent from 1857 to 1947. The Indian National Congress vainly continued
to suffer from the delusion that it represented all the communities in United
India and Sir Sayyid Ahmad to Muhammad Ali Jinnah declared unequivocally that
the Muslim political congregation (Muslim League) had the sole right to represent
the community. History of this delusion and reality has been well recorded
and can be accessed through impartially written history books and not through
Gandhi-Nehru eulogies.
In post-independent India also the Muslims
felt the need of organising themselves around their religious institutions,
community congregations and several activated bodies outside the presumed
umbrellas of Congress, Left parties and other fringe political mushrooms.
Jamait-e-Islami founded by Maududi in 1941
to espouse Islamic exclusivism, separate Muslim identity and establishment
of Islamic rule in India was split into two parts: JeI Hind and JeI Pak. Later
JeI Bangladesh was added to the list. In Pakistan and Bangladesh the JeI function
as political parties. However, in India the Jamait has not taken part in electoral
politics but has supported Muslim groups and candidates which supported the
core ideology of the organisation.
A secretive organisation like the RSS, the
JeI Hind maintained low political profile but actively participated against
the spate of political agitation between 1973-75 (JP Movement) that wanted
to remove Indira Gandhi from power and restore real people's democracy. The
RSS had supported the movement for its own reasons and the JeI also took active
part in the agitation as they were highly disturbed by the acts of Turkman
Gate demolition, resettlement of Muslims to certain clusters in East and North
Delhi and drastic implementation of family planning. A Muslim lady, supposed
to be a close associate of Sanjay Gandhi, had even operated a couple of family
planning establishments in the walled city areas of Delhi. In short, the Muslim
sentiment against Indira led Congress was highly vitiated and the Muslims
felt that they were specially targeted for discrimination and socio-political
and economic isolation. They were already high-strung over the defeat of Pakistan
in 1971. The singed Muslim sentiment was also agitated by direct and indirect
stimulation from the Muslim educational and religious institutes like the
Aligarh, Jamia Milia, Nadwa, Firangi Mahall, Tablighi Jammat etc. During the
emergency regime most of the important Jamait leaders were put behind the
bars.
Other historic events around the time of birth
of the Students Islamic Movement of India on April 25, 1977) require examination.
Normal JeI student front is known as Islami-Jamait-e-Talaba. Such bodies existed
before the SIMI was floated.
Right after defeat in Bangladesh war (1971)
Z. A. Bhutto in collaboration with Jamait-e-Islami Pakistan utilised the Indian
wing of the Jamiat to depute teachers and preachers to Kashmir valley to impart
Islamic studies to the Kashmiri students attached to madrasas, Sufi Dargahs
(holy mosques like Charar-e-Sharif) and other educational institutions. The
objective was to subvert the Sufi-minded Kashmiri Muslims and to convert them
to hardcore Hanafi Sunni Islamists.
This mission was also sustained by Zia-ul-Haq.
According to intelligence reports Zia's government provided financial support
to the JeI Pak for mobilising the JeI Hind to achieve ideological conquest
of Kashmir. The developments in Indian Kashmir and till 1989 when Pakistan
unfolded its proxy war in so called IHK, bear testimony to the fact that the
JeI Hind in collaboration with its counterpart in Pakistan and the ISI had
succeeded in vastly destroying the moderate Islamic culture and Kashmiriyat
of the people of the valley. Concerned agencies had kept the government of
India adequately informed about silent cultural and religious revolution in
Kashmir that could lead to political rebellion.
Inside Pakistan General Zia took command and
introduced total Islamisation of the country. In Bangladesh Mujib was assassinated
by the pro-Pakistani army officers and in 1977 General Zia-ur-Rahman allowed
the Jamait-e-Islami leaders (Pak), who collaborated with Pakistan army, to
return to Bangladesh and open their fundamentalist shop.
During 1977 Janata Dal rule in Delhi the Jamait-e-Islami
leaders reopened their shop with great enthusiasm and tried to fill in the
political vacuum left by Muslim alienation from the Congress. While still
under ban the organisation expanded its membership to over 100,000. New halqas
(branches) were opened in seventy locations all over India. The All India
Muslim Students Union and other Muslim youth and students bodies were directed
to organise meetings under cover of Dawa (service) and mobilise opinion of
the Muslims by touring the interior areas. Main focus was in Uttar Pradesh,
Bihar, Assam, West Bengal, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh,
Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu. Historical facts do not support the decision
as to why the JeIH went for opening a new youth and student body. Ahmadullah
Siddiqi, who started the organisation, was an important member of the JeIH.
Had the JeIH wanted an organistaion ostensively outside its official structure
foe carrying out different types of activities? Perhaps, yes.
It is on April 25, 1977 Mohammad Ahmadullah
Siddiqi of Aligarh Muslim University, the alma mater of Muslim renaissance,
founded the Islamic Students Movement of India. A scholar in Physics Ahmadullah
was inspired to change streams of massmedia and journalism for projecting
better image of Muslims of India. He started it as a united platform for Muslim
students and youth wing of the JeI Hind with the objective to restore the
Caliphate for the unity of Ummah (Muslim community) by rejecting the concept
of nationalism, secularism and democracy.
Though he stoutly denied after settling down
in the US any inclination to Islamic fundamentalism his aim was to establish
Dar-ul-Islam (land of Islam). The ideological inspirations were derived from
Muslim thinkers who had launched Islamic movements in the subcontinent in
the past, e.g. Shah Walliullah, Sayyid Ahmad and Haji Shariat Allah and Maulana
Maududi, the founder of the Jamait-e Islami (JEI). SIMI was deeply inspired
by the Maududi's goal to make Islam the supreme organizing principle for the
social and political life of the Muslim community.
Personally Ahmadullah was a member of the
International Islamic Students Federation, Rabita-ul-Alam-e-Islami and was
profoundly influenced by the Iranian revolution. His speeches in the Aligarh
University testify his affinity to revolutionary Islamic resurgence. He had
organised protest demonstrations during Yassir Arafat's visit to India on
grounds that he was a 'stooge' of the US. Ahmadullah was a staunch supporter
of the Iranian backed Hamas that was making space in Palestine and Lebanon
with Iranian support.
He was Assistant Secretary General of IIFSO
and had joined Jamait-e-Islami of India in 1973. He has also served on the
Board of Directors and Governing Boards of Institute of Objective Studies,
New Delhi, India, Centre for Studies on Sciences, Aligarh, India, Students
Islamic Trust of Indian and All-India Council for Muslim Educational Upliftment,
Bombay, India. Later he renounced the violent activities of the SIMI and declared
that he had not set up the movement to fight armed jihad.
Mohammad Ahmadullah Siddiqi migrated to US
in 1981 and is now a professor of Journalism and Public Relations at Western
Illinois University Macomb, Illinois. Dr. Siddiqi now serves as Honorary Vice
President of the American Islamic College Chicago and is a member of the College's
Board of Directors. Even after rooting in the US Dr. Siddiqi had not left
keen interest in the welfare of the Muslims. He is the founding member and
Secretary General of the North American Association of Muslims Professionals
and Scholars (NAAMPS).
After his departure from India the SIMI had
started rooting in different parts of the country recruiting over 1000 Ansars
or registered leading members and about 50,000 Ikhwans (supporting members).
SIMI published several magazines- Tahreek, Hindi; Iqraa, Gujrati; Rupantar,
Bengali; Sedhi Madal, Tamil; Vivekam, Malayalam; Movement in English and Shaheen
Times in English for children. Tauqeer, now wanted in Ahmedabad bomb blast
edited the Shaheen Times for some time.
Objectives and Ideology of the SIMI:
* Governing of human life on the basis of
the Holy Quran
* Propagation of Islam
* Jihad for the cause of Islam
SIMI attempts to utilize the youth in the
propagation of Islam and also to mobilize support for Jihad and establish
a Shariat-based Islamic rule through 'Islami Inqulab' (Islamic revolution).
As the organization does not believe in a nation-state, it does not believe
in the Indian Constitution or the secular order. Among its various objectives,
the SIMI aims to counter what it believes is the increasing moral degeneration,
sexual anarchy in the Indian society as also the 'insensitiveness' of a 'decadent'
west. Ideologically, SIMI maintains that the concepts of secularism, democracy
and nationalism, keystones of the Indian Constitution, are antithetical to
Islam. Parallel to its rejection of secularism, democracy and nationalism
is its oft-repeated objective of restoration of the 'khilafat', emphasis on
'ummah' (Muslim brotherhood), and the need for a Jihad to establish the supremacy
of Islam.
In recent years the SIMI started preaching that partition of the country had
not solved problems of the Muslims. Nearly 20 crores Muslims of India, in
combination with the Muslim population of Pakistan and Bangladesh form the
largest mass of Muslims and they have the assigned right to shift the centre
of Islamic gravity from Saudi Arabia and Egypt to Delhi, from where the Muslim
rulers once ran a parallel Khilafat. India should the centre of the new Khilafat.
In a speech at Ujjain in 2005 he had even mentioned about regaining Taj-e-Hind.
"To bring Islamic revolution in the country
we considered the parliamentary system election process is useless and futile.
It is difficult to keep the Islamic revolutionary character during the process
of election. Therefore SIM will not participate in the election or will not
give votes to anybody. During the time of election SIM will expose the nature
of the system democracy, socialism, secularism, nationalism etc. and ask the
people to boycott the election and march for the Islamic revolution."
At some stage the SIMI dropped the last 'I'
and converted to SIM-Students Islamic Movement. Its website was also known
as www.simofindia.org. Some media hype after Abu Basher's arrest that SIMI
has changed name to SIM is cheaper than wayside rag. SIMI had adopted a new
front-name Indian Mujahideen as it was still involved in legal battle to get
over the stigma of government ban. Indian Mujahideen name was devised to give
impression that jihad had taken indigenous character and it had no link with
foreign jihadi tanzeems. This should not mislead any objective observer and
analyst. The objectives of the organisation were spelt out in its website
before it went out of the electronic stream. Some quotes are revealing and
should be perused by leaders like Lalu, Mulayam and Rambilas etc who see no
evil in anything that give them drops of vote-milk.
"The SIM believes that the root cause
of this universal chaos and anarchy is the prevalent system, which is oriented
in the rejection God. The SIM feels it is essential to emphasis that no political
parties or organization can bring about a solid and constructive change through
secularism in the light of their erratic ideologies. The only way to bring
about the real change is through recognition of God, the Creator and Sustainer,
and leading a life in the light of divine guidance and thus establishing an
Islamic life. On the eve of election in the atmosphere of varied noise pollution,
the Students Islamic Movement of India appeals to all Indians, especially
Muslims not to get consumed by the political slogans and utopias, rather go
for the reconstruction of individual and collective life through the natural
and realistic system of Islam."
"In such a sorry state of affairs, it
is the responsibility of this "last community" the "best community",
the "middle community", to rise up and face the challenges that
surround it, to revive Deen, to lead and guide not only the Islamic world,
but all of humanity along the 'Straight Path' and rescue it from the clutches
of Satanic powers. It is the demand of the time that Muslim youth should struggle
for the superiority and establishment of Deen and the revival of Islam in
the light of the holy Qur'an and Sunnah. It is with this very purpose that
SIMI strives tirelessly throughout the length and breadth of this country,
creating young hearts throbbing with the desire of revival and establishment
of Islam. …Thousands of students have answered this call and are marching
forward defiantly tremendous odds, ready to sacrifice everything in the way
of Allah."
"Our assessment of various (Islamic)
organizations will be based on the following definition of the Islamic movement.
"All conscious efforts directed to establish Islam simultaneously challenging
the battle as well as Taghooti forces."
What is Taghooti?
This is an Arabic word that generally means
forces that are antithesis to the forces of the Allah. Hudhayfah Ibnul-Yamaan
a close follower of the Prophet interpreted this expression of battle between
the forces of the Allah and the forces of evil in the following way- He asked:
Messenger of Allaah, no doubt, we had an evil time (i.e. the days of jahiliyyah
or ignorance) and Allaah brought us a good time (i.e. Islamic period) through
which we are now living. Will there be a bad time after this good time? He
(the Prophet) said: Yes. I said: Will there be a good time after this bad
time? He said: Yes. I said: Will there be a bad time after good time? He said:
Yes. I said: How? Whereupon he said: There will be leaders who will not be
led by my guidance and who will not adopt my ways?
There will be among them men who will have
the hearts of devils in the bodies of human beings. I said: What should I
do Messenger of Allah, if I (happen) to live in that time? He replied: You
will listen to the ameer and carry out his orders; even if your back is flogged
and your wealth is snatched, you should listen and obey.
It is good enough to stop here. SIMI's objective
is to resume the war against the infidels who have forced bad times on the
Muslims and to restore the good times of Islamic rule.
It has been claimed that the SIMI has over
1000 Ansars and over 50,000 Ikhwans. No reliable data are available about
the territorial distribution of the cadre. However, since the SIMI was hooked
up by the ISI of Pakistan and was drawn to the vortex of Afghan Mujahideen
war sponsored by the CIA, Saudi Intelligence and the ISI some of the radical
SIMI leaders reconstructed the original ideological architecture of the organisation.
By 1990 the concerned agencies noticed that
nearly 15 SIMI volunteers from UP, Delhi, Andhra and Maharashtra had travelled
to Kathmandu from where they were transported to Pakistan. Twelve of them
acclimatised in training camps run by the ISI in Quetta area and returned
to India. More significant was the observations of clandestine contacts between
the Delhi's Pakistan embassy-based intelligence officials and some of the
SIMI leaders in Delhi, Ajmer Sharif and Mumbai. These well recorded evidences
were clinching.
Later, at the height of Sikh turmoil in Punjab
three SIMI functionaries from Aligarh were tapped by the ISI to locate themselves
temporarily to a hotel in Maharajganj Market, Kathmandu and assist the Sikh
militants in transporting and safe-housing arms and explosives in certain
places in western UP. These arms and explosives were recovered by the concerned
agencies.
Your author had the opportunity in unearthing
that SIMI-Pakistan link.
Government ministers who shed vote-bank tears
for SIMI should ask their own agencies to apprise them of these reports, if
the agencies can trust such on these vote-hungry politicians.
For those in and out of government, especially
for the vote-hungry politicians, who doubt about SIMI's early contact with
Pakistan I quote from V. Balachandran former Additional Secretary RAW, "Reports
about SIMI's involvement in recent bombings have ignored that a triangular
process of punishing India had started much earlier. The first judicially
tested evidence of Pakistani-Khalistani-SIMI nexus had surfaced in 1992 ending
up with a Supreme Court judgment on 9 January 2001, which everybody seems
to have forgotten. The case which was contested for nine years in several
courts started with the arrest of Lal Singh, alias Manjit Singh, an ISI-trained
Khalistani militant on 16 July 1992 at Dadar railway station by Gujarat Police
on prior intelligence. A search of his safe house in Ahmedabad on 25 July
revealed considerable quantity of arms and explosives. The CBI took over the
case in August 1992. Investigation revealed his connections with Basheer of
Kerala who had organised a SIMI convention in 1991 in Mumbai where the linkage
was firmed up. Basheer absconded, but 21 persons including Pakistani national
Mohammad Sharief, Mumbai residents Tahir Jamal, Saquib Nachan and Shoaib Mukhtiar
were apprehended. Lal Singh confessed planning to blow up Madras Stock Exchange
for which a survey was done on 2 July 1992, besides trying to assassinate
South Indian Hindu leaders and police officers. The Supreme Court confirmed
life sentence to Lal Singh and Mohammad Sharief, while others were given ten-year
prison terms. Absconding Basheer, a postgraduate diploma holder in aeronautical
engineering, was later suspected to have been involved in the 2003 Mulund,
Ghatkopar, Gateway and Zaveri Bazaar blasts, besides being a SIMI fundraiser."
Police & State (published in Covert-Sept 16 to 30th). SIMI hand was noticed
in Bombay Stock exchange bomb blast (Dawood Ibrahim fiat). The list is too
long and need not be reproduced here.
Based on certain reliable reports the approximate
strength of the SIMI in different states is given below. Any reader having
better figures and data may correct me. For brevity A has been used for Ansar
and I for Ikhwan. The estimates of known figures are based on several agency
reports and the author's personal ground studies.
Assam=15 A, 600 I; Manipur= 5 A, 15 I; Tripura=8
A, 12 I; West Bengal= 50 A, 400 I; Bihar= 40 A. 430 I; Jharkhand= 25 A, 200
I; Uttar Pradesh= 300 A, 1000 I; Delhi= 40 A, 600 I; Orissa= 5 A, 15 I; Madhya
Pradesh=80 A, 480 I; Chhatisgarh= 45 A, 150 I; Rajasthan=80 A, 275 I; Gujarat=100
A, 280 I; Maharashtra 200 A, 1050 I; Andhra Pradesh= 60 A, 200 I; Karnataka=30
A, 150 I; Kerala= 43 A, 120 I; Tamil Nadu=26 A, 145 I.
For visual understanding the spread is depicted
in the sectional maps:
These locations have not been pinned arbitrarily.
Almost every district in the mentioned States has units of SIMI, besides in
the educational and professional institutions. Most of these are located in
cell and module form where the strength is not overwhelmingly visible. Some
units have been drafted to the underground outfit: Indian Mujahideen. The
rest try to go by legitimate student/youth labels.
However, the earlier style of recruiting the
youths from madrasa centres has given way to general and minority educational
institutions and hostels, IT training centres, IT facility vendors, professional
institutions and population clusters which are nearly impenetrable to peoples
of other communities and even to the government functionaries. The pattern
is similar almost all over the country with exception that in rural areas
of UP, Bihar, Bengal, Assam and the mining and industrial belt of Jharkhand
mosques, madrasas, labour unions and people belonging to service (manual)
sectors are exploited for field operations purposes. In a city like Delhi
and Mumbai the pattern gives way to intensified word of the mouth, clandestine
video CD, and limited cable operations etc. The picture is nearly the same
in the southern part of the country.
The SIMI, like most motivated terror groups
which are inspired by religious fanaticism has an ideological base. This has
been explained in earlier paragraphs. It has a well laid down apparatus divided
into two clear segments: open segment and underground segment. The open façade
looks like a loosely structured youth and student body running indoctrination
classes, managing print magazines, websites and organising cultural events.
The other part of the façade consists of a labyrinthine structured
body, right from the President to the Ikhwans assigned with different tasks.
It is more or less like an underground tech-apparatus of any revolutionary
organisation modelled after the Hamas. The underground apparatus is still
in developing stage and has not taken the solid shape like its counterparts
in Pakistan such as Lashkar and Jais. An illustrative diagram would make it
easier for the readers to understand:
However, our investigating agencies have so
far been studying the SIMI on the basis of personalities and certain basted
hideouts. I suppose they are required to go into the labyrinthine spade work
that has been established by the SIMI, with support from Jamait-e-Islami Hind
and other jihadi organisations. Interestingly, a SIMI Ikhwan can also be found
to be an active worker of Deendar Anjuman or Muslim Liberation Tiger Army
(Assam). There is no ban on cross-organisations membership. A SIMI Ansar can
also be a member of the HuJI. There are instances of SIMI Ansars and Ikhwans
collaborating with Lashkar-e-Toiba etc Pakistani tanzeems.
SIMI leadership, so far unfolded, were identified
as Dr Shahid Badar Falah functioning as the national president and Safdar
Nagori as the general secretary. Delhi Police arrested Falah on September
28, 2001 after the organisation was banned. Safdar Nagori, the next president
was arrested by police from Indore along with twelve Nagori is known to have
firm linkage with the ISI and was in the process of linking us with Taliban.
He considers Mullah Omar as the Amir ul Momineeen. Other leaders like Mohammad
Aamir, (Uttar Pradesh unit chief), a prime accused in the Kanpur riots of
March 16, was arrested on April 25, 2006. Abul Bashar Qasmi, who succeeded
after Safdar Nagori's arrest, was apprehended on August 16, 2008 from a village
in Azamgarh. He had masterminded the July 26, 2008 Ahmedabad (Gujarat) serial
bomb blasts, and is suspected as a vital link in Bangaluru, Jaipur and Delhi
blasts.
SIMI leaders are supported by the World Assembly
of Muslim Youth (WAMY), Riyadh. It is affiliated to the International Islamic
Federation of Students' Organizations (IIFSO) in Kuwait. Jamait-e-Islami Pakistan
and Markaz-ud-Dawa-al-Irshad are known to have funded the SIMI. Chicago-based
Consultative Committee of Indian Muslims (related to the founder president
of SIMI) supports SIMI morally and financially. SIMI's links and active collaboration
with Bangladesh JeI, Islamic Chhtra Shibir, and HUJI are well established.
Several operations, especially the Benaras, Hyderabad, and Mumbai blasts were
jointly accomplished by the SIMI Ansars, Ikhwans and the HUJI elements from
Bangladesh. SIMI volunteers had undergone training with Hizbul Mujahideen
in Pak occupied Kashmir. Three Jalgaon (Maharashtra) youths Sheikh Asif Supdu,
Sheikh Khalid Iqbal and Sheikh Mohammad Hanif had reportedly died in Indian
border force firing in 2000, while crossing over from Pakistan. SIMI links
with Lashkar-e-Toiba has been proved beyond doubt. They were partners in several
blast incidents in Maharashtra and Gujarat. Interrogation of Nagori and others
have brought out that they were trying to establish linkages with Tehrik-e-Taliban,
Pakistan and Afghan Talibans for training and material assistance for carrying
out jihad in India.
Besides linkage with smaller jihadist bodies
the SIMI also functions through certain front organisations. Some of the front
organisations are: Muslim Youth Cultural Forum, Muslim Youth Front, All-Bengal
Islamic Students Conference, Khidmat-e-Khalaq, Ameer-ul-Muslimeen, Darul-Khuda,
Juhapura Youth Federation, Students Islamic Federation, Sauhridaya Library,
Quran Foundation, Minority Rights Watch, Ittehadul Musalmeen and Naujawan-e-Islam.
Some of these outfits are state-specific, while others operate on a national
or regional level. At the national level, Simi uses Tahrik Tahaffuj-e-sha'aire
Islam (TTSI), Wahadat-e-Islami, Tahrik-e-Ehyaa-e-Ummat and Tehrik-Talaba-eArabia
for over ground activities.
In Southern India, besides the Musli Munnetra
Kazagham and Deendar Anjuman etc the SIMI is connected with the following
organisations: National Development Front (NDF), the People's Democratic Party
(PDP) of Coimbatore serial blasts accused Abdul Nasser Mahdani, and several
fringe outfits, including the Muslim Youth Cultural Forum, Karuna Foundation,
Muslim Aikya Vedi, Sahridaya Vedi, Samskara Vedi, Solidarity Students Movement
and the Movement for Protection of Islamic Symbols and Monuments.
In Kerala Shibli Paidhikar headed a strong
group and had set up at least 20 modules. They had organised training in forest
areas in which a maulana from Lakshadwip had also taken part. Similar training
camps were organised at Hubli, Karnataka, Indore, Ujjain, Badodra, Aurangabad
and Bijapur. The instructors trained the Ansars in physical training, indoctrination,
use of explosives and fabrication of IED and other techniques of terrorist
strike in urban areas. Downloaded websites of Hamas, Lashkar etc were projected
to illustrate fidayeens training. An illustrative training manual obtained
from a delicate source contain the following subjects, for daily training:
a.Prayer, b. taqrir (lecture) on Islam and
motivation quoting profusely from Quran, c. Physical exercises modelled after
army physical training and as depicted in Al Qaeda training video, d. lectures
on atrocities on Muslims, e. firing from air rifle using targets and pellets,
f. theoretical and practical lessons in bomb fabrication using RDX, locally
available materials, preparation of Molotov Cocktail, g. ground surveillance
, h. exploiting sympathetic contacts in explosive and ordnance factories and
ex-army personnel, i. DVD films on guerrilla warfare, urban terrorism etc.
Important leaders who attended such trainings
along with other Ansras are Safdar Nagori, Abul Basar, Adnan of Bijapur, Shibli
of Ernakulam, Amir Parvaiz-Ujjain, Kamruddin-Ujjain, Sameer Salim-Ujjain (computer
expert), Asadullah-Hubli, Allah Bux-Karnataka, Dr. Moon Rose-Belgaum, Samsuddin-Ahmedabad,
Md. Yunus Mansuri-Ahmedabad, Razik, Zahid-Ahmedabad, Imran, Usman Agarbatti,
Kayamuddin @ Ashfaq Iqrar-Baroda, Mehboob-Khandwa, Imran-Khandwa, Md. Ali-Jabbalpur,
Shahid, Iqrar-Ujjain, Subhan Qureshi-Mira Road Mumbai, Khalid Kharemba, Abul
Sar, Habib, Wasik, Shahid Badr Falahi, Faizan- Azamgarh, Shahbaz Hussain-Aminabad,
Kalim Akhtar-Lucknow, Salim, Javed-Lakhimpur, Mistabul Hussain, Rafiq-West
Bengal, Amir Mehfuz, Arif-Allahabad, Hummam-Sultanpur. These are names of
only a part of the top leaders who have been trained in demolition works,
and it is not the end-list.
The comprehensive list of active and leading
Ansars highlight place-names like Ujjain belt, Ahmedabad and Azamgarh. The
first recorded communal conflagration in Ujjain-Dhar belt had taken place
in 1695, the first recorded Ahmedabad communal conflagration was in 1704 (jeweller
Kapurchand case in the court of Emperor Farrukhshiar) and Azmgarh in UP's
'purvannchal' had earned communal notoriety way back in 1893 during 'Gorakhshini'
agitation. There have been repeated communal conflagrations in the Gorakhour-Azamgarh
belt at regular intervals between 1897 and 1947. Muslims rioted on the day
of Holi in 1975 and on 26th January on the occasion of Republic Day, simply
because some people raised 'Bandemataram' slogan.The latest incident involving
firing on the procession of Yogi Adityanath, a BJP MP and a notorious Hindu
protagonist is fresh in memory. The involvement of Azamgarh youths in Delhi
bombing should be understood that in that light. It is a strong fort of jihadis
in Eastern UP.
Pakistan had exported jihad to the mainland
India from Kashmir and it was ably assisted by the DGFI from Bangladesh. Gradually,
after testing Indian unpreparedness, they started sending own jihadi tanzeems
to perch the flag of Islam through violence. During last 20 years such efforts
have borne fruit. SIMI's umbilical growth, the Indian Mujahideen and other
tanzeems in different parts of India have emerged as the open faces of hidden
International Islamic Jihad. They may change names but the kernel of SIMI-Lashkar-ISI-DGFI
linkages would remain intact.
Unfortunately our political leaders and the
people in general treat these as terrorist incidents. What is happening in
India today is not terrorism; it is the first stage of unveiling the open
face of concealed jihad. Unless the political masters take a lesson or two
in national security matters and threat posed by forces like Maoist revolutionaries
and the Islamists they would not even be in a position to bargain with the
enemies from abroad and within like Jagat Seth, Omi Chand and Mirzafar had
vainly bargained with the determined colonialists who inched in taking advantage
of Indian ignorance and greed-be it for money or vote.
The Nation is more important than a few more
Votes; Mr. and Mrs. Politicians. The sand of history is running out. It is
time to Act by shedding all pretensions of 'misplaced interpretation of secularism'
and criminal apathy towards the festering sores of Jihadi advances and Maoist
movements. These sores are becoming gangrenous.
