SIMI IS ON THE RISE AGAIN AND SPREADING FAST AND SERIOUS THREAT TO INDIA

SIMI IS ON THE RISE AGAIN.. SPREADING FAST AND IS A SERIOUS
THREAT TO INDIA

Prof Dr Colonel (retired) K Prabhakar Rao



The Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) was formed in Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh state, in April 1977. SIMI's founding president was Mohammad Ahmadullah Siddiqi, reportedly professor of journalism and public relations at the Western Illinois University. SIMI originally emerged as a student wing of the Jamaat-e-Islami Hind (JIH). The stated mission of SIMI is the ‘liberation of India’ from western materialistic cultural influence and to convert it into an Islamic society. SIMI have been influenced by Deobandi Islam which is a Muslim revivalist movement that started in India in 1879. It is perhaps most famous in the west as the philosophy of the past Taliban government in Afghanistan. Its slogan is "Allah is our Lord, Qur’an is our constitution, Muhammad is our leader, Jihad is our way and Shahadah is our desire". Among its various objectives, 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. SIMI maintains that the concepts of secularism, democracy and nationalism, keystones of the Indian Constitution, are antithetical to Islam. They aim to restore the supremacy of Islam through the resurrection of the Khilafat, emphasis on the Muslim Ummah and the waging of Jihad. Infact the Institution of Khalifa was abolished after the fall of Ottoman empire after World war I. Turkey became a modern democratic state on western principles of rule. Since then fundamentalist Muslims have become bitter and swear to annihilate West and al Kafirs. Obviously Indian society is also the target
Inspired by the Islamic Revolution in Iran, it stood for radical social change in India and the waging of Jihad in India, an approach not appreciated by the leadership of JIH which appears to be a more mature organization. The alliance was short-lived. In 1981, SIMI activists protested against PLO leader Yasser Arafat’s visit to India, and greeted him with black flags in New Delhi. Young SIMI activists identified Arafat as a "western puppet", while the senior JIH leaders saw Arafat as a champion of the cause of Palestine. JIH realized that SIMI was slowly adopting an extremist line. When SIMI sought self governance and independence of operation from JIH, JIH declined. SIMI separated from JIH and continued as hardline Islamic organization. Owing to its dangerous disposition and ideology the outfit has been banned on 27 Sept 2001 as unlawful organization subsequent to Sept 9/11 attacks in US main land. SIMI remained banned from September 27, 2001 to September 27, 2003 during which period several prosecutions were launched against its members under the provisions of Terrorist And Disruptive Activities Prevention Act(TADA), the Maharashtra Control of Organized Crime Act(MCOCA), and the Unlawful Activities Provisions Act 1967.SIMI was banned for the third time on 08-02-2006. In fact, the second ban of SIMI dated 27-09-2003 came to an end on 27-09-2005. Therefore SIMI was in existence between 28th September, 2005 and 7th February, 2006.
SIMI has been accused of carrying out bombing campaigns across India resulting in loss of lives. The most important and damaging act was the Mumbai train blasts. On July 11, 2006, A serial blast was carried out in Mumbai, killing around 200 and hurting more than 1000 innocent commuters in the 7 different local train stations within a time gap of 11 min. SIMI has been suspected of carrying out this terror activity with the help of Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) of Pakistan and Kashmir based terrorist organizations (according to US list) like Lashkar-e-Toiba (LET) and Jaish-e-Mohammad (JEM). Mumbai Police in 2003 arrested three persons from Padgah village and foil a plan that envisaged a series of explosions in Mumbai and Kerala, which was allegedly hatched by the SIMI and Lashkar-e-Toiba.The Bahraich Kotwali police had arrested Shahid Badr along with seven others for allegedly making an inflammatory speech at Sir Syed Girls College in Bahraich in 2001. A case was registered against him on charges of sedition, creating communal disharmony, inducement for armed struggle and hurting religious sentiments, under various sections of IPC. But the concerned authorities failed to substantiate these claims. Some also believe that the authorities who matter developed cold feet for punishing on the charges of treason. The Chief priest, Shahi Imam of Jama Maszid of Delhi also made inflammatory speeches and some of the speeches during the destruction of Bamiyan Buddha by Taliban were anti national. He got away Scot free. There is no doubt that in India pseudo secularism is ruling the roost and government policy of appeasement of minority has infact indirectly helped the emergence of SIMI and many other anti national outfits whose leaders are getting away from the law. Finally the Uttar Pradesh government on 1 July 2006 withdrew a "treason" case against the banned SIMI president Dr Shahid Badr Falahi. There is no surprise. The concerned authorities failed to substantiate these claims. POTA court in New Delhi sentenced two SIMI activists to a five-year imprisonment under POTA for their membership of the proscribed organization and seven years imprisonment for sedition (1).
The radical outfit, banned in 2001 under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, comprises young students committed to establishing a 'Dar-ul-Islam' or Land of Islam. They claim that India was ruled by Muslims and is therefore is the land of Islam. They forget that Muslims came to India from Arab world.. This is a very dangerous. India does not belong to only to Muslims. It is a different thing that to day India is a secular country and it belongs to every one, Sikhs, Hindus, Christians and Muslims too and can not exclusively belong to only Muslims. This is outrageous indeed. But SIMI feels that he present rule should go along with its constitution trend and has to be destroyed in the state of bud itself. This is the serious and dangerous and this fundamental organization probably is more dangerous than Al Qaeda as it is aiming to destroy the composite culture of India. Its nefarious designs should not be allowed to continue. The government of India says that SIMI is still active in the country and continues to receive clandestine support from foreign countries. Minister of State for Home Affairs Sriprakash Jaiswal said in parliament that SIMI got "support from across the border" and had "cross-border links" - both of which are official euphemisms for Pakistan. It maintains close relations with Harkat ul Mujahideen of Pakistan and Harkat ul Jihadi Islami of Bangladesh the notorious outfits across the borders (2). The hand of HUJI in recent Hyderabad blasts is suspected and all investigations are pointing accordingly. SIMI has 400 cadres and 20000 members when it was banned. It is believed that SIMI has entrenched itself in Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Tamilnadu Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Assam and Delhi.
The arrest of 10 top activists of the Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI), including its elusive chief Safdar Nagori, has again put the spotlight on the outlawed group. Of late, Madhya Pradesh has witnessed the rise of activities of SIMI. SIMI national general secretary Safdar Nagauri had his base in the Hindu temple town of Ujjain, where the state headquarters was located, before the central government banned it, Bhopal, Despite a ban on it, the Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) suspected for alleged involvement in the Mumbai blasts has seen a rise in its activities in Madhya Pradesh as well as an increase in its area of influence, say police officials. Since the ban, 180 SIMI activists have been arrested from across the state including Indore, Ujjain, Bhopal, Khandwa, Seoni, Jabalpur, Sheopur, Burhanpur, Guna, Neemuch and Shajapur districts. Since the ban on the organization on Sep 27, 2001, it has spread to many new districts. It was earlier restricted to the districts of Indore, Ujjain, Khandwa and Bhopal with its state headquarters in Ujjain before the ban.SIMI activities have been witnessed in four more districts - Burhanpur, Guna, Neemuch and Shajapur - after the ban, according to police records. With this, SIMI has made its presence felt now in almost the whole of the Malwa region. Cases against it have also been registered in Sivni, Jabalpur and Sheopur districts. Thus it can be seen that SIMI has made strong presence in many districts of Madhya Pradesh (3). Admitting that more needs to be done to track down the banned outfit's members and sympathizers, a senior police official said: 'The police and the state intelligence are on their toes to track the presence of anti-nationals in the state.' The upwardly mobile cadres of SIMI, many of them trained engineers, doctors and IT professionals, have been arranging logistical support to the terrorists, lodging Pakistani and Bangladeshi terrorists of LeT, Jaish and HuJI in Maharashtra, Karnataka, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, UP, Bihar and West Bengal where the outfit(SIMI) now has a significant presence.SIMI activists also acted as guides to jehadis coming to India from Pakistan and Bangladesh. Nagori, on the run since 2001 when SIMI was banned and its headquarters sealed at Zakir Nagar in Delhi, swears by Osama bin Laden and finds jihad as the only means to achieve the goals of a pan-Islamic nation. 'It is not the SIMI alone but several anti-national forces, including the underworld, have joined hands together. The police are keeping a close watch on all such elements,' said Sanjeev Kumar Singh, Bhopal range inspector general.Nagori's arrest in Madhya Pradesh indicates that he was making inroads in the BJP-ruled state. Its leaders had gathered in the state earlier also, at Ujjain. His deputies were, meanwhile, active in other states organizing regular meetings and sending new recruits for arms training in camps in J&K and at other makeshift sites elsewhere in the country (4).
It is also established that SIMI has a women’s wing called Shaheen Force. It is estimated that nearly 200 fully trained activists are deployed in Uttar Pradesh. These girls in the age group of 20-30 years have been trained in explosives and are also experts on computers. They are recruited mostly from colleges are deeply religious. The force has obviously roping in the talented women for the cause of Islam. The western influence on the Muslim kids is to be erased and bring back all such persons back into Islamic fold. Even children are being trained along with their mothers. The arrest and interrogation of SIMI activists in Madhya Pradesh has revealed the information about the women’s force. These girls are trained to be suicide bombers. As per information, training camp was conducted at a remote riverside in the mountainous areas of Indore at Choral.. The force is known to have established its presence in Districts such as Varanasi, Gorakhpur, Maharajgunj, Bulandshahar, Moradabad, and Saharanpur in Uttar Pradesh. ( 5). Thus we see that SIMI has surfaced strongly again and is strong in Madhya Pradesh a BJP ruled State. SIMI is infact is the most dangerous outfit of all and maintains contact with Pakistani terror outfits. Jihad is its life and spirit. It breaths Jihad. Therefore it can stoop down to any length to achieve its aims. Therefore it is the most dangerous outfits of all and poses greatest threat to India’s integrity It is out to poison Indian Muslim masses and ignorant would fall a prey to their anti national speeches. In the name of religion and Islam they are out to corner every Muslim whether he is a male or female into their fold. It is therefore more necessary to be watchful about SIMI in India and confront it with all the might and negate all its dangerous designs to disrupt the nation and progress. The very concept of Jihad has been misinterpreted by SIMI and therefore their theory should be rejected by all right thinking persons.The outfit has been rightly banned by the government and it is also essential that its members are persecuted and hunted down and punished accordingly. Although the out fot has been banned it is surfacing again and it is essential that government evolves a co ordinated plan to arrestits members and book them and bring them to justice. The punishments should be strong and and should set an example to others. A single outfit like SIMI should not be allowed to destabilize India and destroy its secular fabric.

Bibliography
1.SIMI, Wikipedia,
2. Seven years after ban SIMI is still active,
http://209.85.175.104/search?q=cache:kePc5RNSuncJ:www.dnaindia.com/report.asp%3Fnewsid%3D1157813+SIMI+is+fast+spreading+in+India&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=3&gl=in

3. SIMI may act underchanged name, http://209.85.175.104/search?q=cache:7fh4sVTDx6IJ:www.nerve.in/news:25350022535+SIMI+is+fast+spreading+in+India&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=2&gl=in

4. : SIMI;LeT;Jaish;HUJI;Islam;jihad;terrorism;traitors
http://209.85.175.104/search?q=cache:vyD3YotxKwwJ:newshopper.sulekha.com/newsitem//2008/03/simi-did-legwork-for-let-jaish-huji.htm+SIMI+is+fast+spreading+in+India&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=8&gl=in
5. SIMI’s Shaheen girls are new UP worry. Deccan Chronicle, Hyderabad, AP, India, Date April 08, 2008, PP 10