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CRIME: SIMI
Simmering Fanaticism
The ban might temporarily clip the outfit's wings but
is unlikely to curtail its violent designs
By Sayantan Chakravarty
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SIMI President Shahid Badr (right) after his arrest
in Delhi
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At the best of times
the Delhi-headquartered Students' Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) has
advocated an Islamic India. These aren't the best of times. Of late, the
SIMI's young missionaries, with their untamed beards and intolerant ideology,
had begun to openly extol the virtues of the Shah of Terror, Osama bin
Laden. They spoke of him as the champion of Islam, a 21st century messiah
who would free the "exploited Musalmaan everywhere, even in the 52
countries where Muslims rule".
The SIMI also clandestinely built fraternal
ties with the Lashkar-e-Toiba and the Hizbul Mujahideen, two of the deadliest
ISI-backed militant outfits operating in the Kashmir Valley. At crowded
conferences, its leaders broadcast live inflammatory speeches by Qazi
Hussain, the radical Jamaat-e-Islami chief in Pakistan, and Sheikh Mohammad
Yasin, the Palestinian leader of the Hamas. Over the years, the SIMI has
also made its hatred for Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Prime Minister
A.B. Vajpayee and Home Minister L.K. Advani abundantly clear.
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DIVISIVE AGENDA: (Above) SIMI leaders make
inflammatory speeches at meetings; and a poster supporting bin Laden
(below)
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Alarmed by intelligence reports from across the
country in the past year, top officials in the Union Government, including
the chiefs of the Intelligence Bureau, Delhi Police and the Union home
secretary, held a series of meetings in September on how to handle the
SIMI. The conclusion was unanimous: it was time to act. The SIMI's militant
views and its ability to precipitate riotous situations, like the one
in Kanpur in March this year, were posing a threat to internal security.
On September 27, the Union Home Ministry announced a two-year ban on the
SIMI under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967. Says Union
Home Secretary Kamal Pande: "We have enough evidence to show that
the SIMI was engaged in activities contrary to national interests."
Some SIMI office-bearers might have seen the
ban coming. In an interview to India Today (April 2, 2001), the now absconding
SIMI Secretary-General Safdar Nagori admitted knowledge of intelligence
tabs on the outfit but it didn't stop him from spouting provocative remarks
like "Osama has shown great character" or that "the organisation
has no regard for Gandhi or Nehru".
The ban order, meanwhile, galvanised various
state police departments into action. In a countrywide swoop on the SIMI
offices, including its two-storey head office at Zakir Nagar in south
Delhi, over 400 activists were arrested. Ninety of these arrests were
made in Uttar Pradesh, mainly in Lucknow and Kanpur, hotbeds of the SIMI's
anti-national activities. Other arrests took place in West Bengal, Delhi,
Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan and Maharashtra.
Among those held was Shahid Badr, the SIMI's vocal national president.
In Bihar, a reluctant administration, unwilling to rub Muslim sentiments
the wrong way, failed to make any arrests. The ban led to violent protests
by SIMI activists. In Lucknow and Kanpur, a panicky police force had to
resort to firing in which four youths were killed. Curfew was clamped
in many parts of these cities. In Bihar, demonstrations by the SIMI activists
were allowed by the Rabri Devi Government. At Zakir Nagar and other areas
in south Delhi, high tension prevailed when police sealed the SIMI's head
office and arrested a corporator for inciting violence.
If the Union Government's findings on SIMI are
anything to go by, the organisation has scant regard for the secular agenda
of the Indian Constitution. Its publication Islamic Movement has carried
provocative articles calling for the establishment of an Islamic state
in India. Concepts like secularism, democracy and nationalism have been
described as anti-Islamic. Some SIMI leaders have also been involved in
terrorist activities. Its Aligarh Muslim University secretary was arrested
for engineering bomb blasts at Agra just before former US president Bill
Clinton's visit in March 2000.
Established in 1977, the outfit today has a
cadre of 500 Ansars (regular student members), one lakh Ikhwans (associate
members), and 10 lakh Awans (aspiring members). It is generously funded
by "well wishers" in countries like Iran, Libya, Saudi Arabia
and Kuwait and derives sustenance from the Deobandi ideology, one that
makes up the Taliban diet. However, it is unlikely that the ban will curtail
SIMI's activities. As Mumbai's Mohammad F. Azam, regional president of
the Muslim League, says, "The ban will draw more hatred from the
minority community." Arif Kadri, president of SIMI's Gujarat chapter
agrees, "We are not an institution but a movement. The ban is only
going to strengthen us."
At most, the outfit's wings may be temporarily
clipped. In the long run, cashing in on its strong ties with militant
outfits, the SIMI might become more organised and far more violent than
it is today. For the Government, the challenge lies in preventing the
SIMI-instigated bloodletting. Says Ashok Chand, DCP, Special Cell, in
charge of investigations in Delhi: "We will probe the SIMI's links
with pro-Pakistan militant outfits."
Vajpayee, meanwhile, has been forced to explain
to Muslim leaders that the fight is against terrorism, not Islam. But
political parties like the Samajwadi Party dependent heavily on Muslim
votes find it hard to swallow, especially since the Uttar Pradesh assembly
elections are a few months away. One thing, though, is clear: for the
first time in months, the Government has shown it is unwilling to toe
a soft line when it comes to radical groups whose sympathies lie across
the border.
-with bureau reports
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