Nationwide swoop on SIMI

By Vinay Kumar

NEW DELHI, SEPT. 28. Within a day of the nationwide ban being slapped on the Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI), as many as 240 activists of the outfit were arrested in several States and their premises were sealed by the police even as the Home Ministry asserted that it had sufficient evidence of SIMI's links with Osama bin Laden's Al-Qaeda group.

At a press conference here this evening, the Union Home Secretary, Mr. Kamal Pande, sought to dispel an impression that there was any immediate provocation for banning the SIMI.

``We have been examining SIMI's activities over the past several months and gathered sufficient evidence of its links with other militant groups and pan-Islamic outfits. The ban is not confined to just one issue of it having links with Al-Qaeda outfit of Osama bin Laden,'' he said.

He said the Home Ministry had been receiving reports from several State Governments and other agencies about the activities and statements of the SIMI which were detrimental to the maintenance of communal harmony. They caused hurt to the religious sentiments of communities and questioned the very territorial integrity of the country as well.

The crackdown on SIMI activists which began on Thursday evening led to 90 arrests being made in Uttar Pradesh, 35 in West Bengal, four each in Delhi and Kerala and five in Andhra Pradesh. Arrests were also made in Tamil Nadu and Rajasthan and a large number of video and audio cassettes and propaganda material was seized, he said.

Mr. Pande said the SIMI had been publishing material and their activists making speeches which were anti-national and propagated secessionism. The organisation was also found instigating riots in a bid to win over the Muslims to its hard- line fundamentalist and anti-national approach.

Giving details of SIMI's links with other militant groups, Mr. Pande said that organisations such as the Muslim Students' Union, a pro-Hamas group of Palestine students in India and Pakistan, enjoyed a close rapport with the SIMI and the Hamas chief was a frequent invitee to its conferences. It was also working for establishing an international Islamic order. Most recently, SIMI activists were found distributing pro-Taliban leaflets and pamphlets in Delhi and other cities.

The SIMI organised protests against the alleged burning of copy of the Holy Koran in Delhi in March this year and its units gave wide publicity to the issue through the Internet. Also, posters and pamphlets were distributed in Gujarat, Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Karnataka. It printed provocative posters in Ahmedabad last month and issued press releases which caused communal tensions.

The SIMI's links with militancy were noticed as early as 1992. In the recent past, investigation of 14 cases of terrorist violence which had caused 15 deaths and injury to 80 others in Uttar Pradesh and Delhi in 2000-2001 exposed a deep nexus between SIMI and Hizb-ul Mujahideen.

The notification, banning the SIMI for two years, declared it as an unlawful association under Section 3 (1) of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967. In accordance with Section 4 of the Act, the Central Government shall, within 30 days of the publication of the notification, refer it to the Tribunal for the purpose of adjudicating whether or not there is sufficient cause for declaring the association unlawful. The SIMI would also get a chance to appear before the Tribunal which would either confirm or reject the ban within six months.

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