SIMI protests 'victimisation'

By Our Special Correspondent

LUCKNOW, AUG. 28. Activists of the Students' Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) today staged a demonstration near the State Secretariat here to protest against ``victimisation of Muslims''.

Nearly 50 activists of the organisation, some of whose office- bearers were recently arrested in Uttar Pradesh in connection with disruptive activities, gathered with placards and shouted slogans against the Government. Their leaders alleged that the Government was implicating SIMI activists in false cases.

Later in a memorandum addressed to the Governor, the SIMI president of the U.P. zone, Mr. Human Ahmed, demanded that the administration stop false and baseless propaganda about SIMI's link with militant organisations and involvement in destructive activities. The SIMI had time and again denied that it was involved in destructive activities. Nor did it have links with any militant organisation.

The allegations against the organisation were communally biased and concocted, the memorandum said.

The demand for a ban on various Islamic organisations and linking Islamic personalities with the Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) because they did not subscribe to the majoritarian agenda was the product of an anti-Muslim mind-set.

The organisation demanded scrapping of the report of the Group of Ministers which had labelled madrassas as a security threat.

Why not search temples?

PTI reports:

The organisation has asked the Government to conduct searches in temples to ascertain whether they had become `safe haven for criminals.'' Citing recent recovery of explosives from a temple in Etawah District, the organisation's president, Mr. Shahid Badr, told reporters that the raids should find out whether they had become ``safe haven for criminals.''

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