The government has decided to extend the ban imposed on Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) for two years for their alleged links with Pakistani based terrorist outfits.
A Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) in a meeting decide to re-impose the ban under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act 1967 as the group continues to indulge in terrorist activities across the country.
The government has imposed the ban on this organisation for its fundamentalist activities and creating terror in different parts of the country with a mission to establish an Islamic society out of the western influence.
Charges on SIMI
The government of India has accused the organisation for continuously carrying out bombing operations in various parts of the nation including the July 11, 2006 Mumbai train bombings. The July 11 serial train bomb blast took lives of nearly 210 people and injured over 700. The police found the involvement of banned organisation Lashkar-e-Toiba and SIMI as most of the men arrested were identified as activists of the Islamic organisation.
SIMI though challenged the ban in various courts but the Supreme Court itself on Feb 15, 2007 described the Islamic students’ union as a secessionist movement.
Apart from SIMI there are other organisations like Hizb-ul-Mujahideen, Jaish-e-Mohammed and Harkat-ul-Jehadi Islami, which have been banned by the Government for their links with terrorism and all have strong base in Pakistan soil, as believed by Indian intelligence. Certain SIMI leaders are reported to have close links with Pakistan intelligence agency ISI.
Ban on SIMI
The organisation formed in April 1977 in the Aligarh city of Uttar Pradesh was first banned on Sep 27, 2001 in the aftermath of the bombing at New York World Trade Center on Sep 11, 2001. The ban lasted till Sep 27, 2003, during which many men were arrested and detained under the Terrorist and Disruptive Activities Prevention Act (TADA), Maharastra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) and the Unlawful Activities Provision Act 1967.
Considering activities of SIMI the Centre re-imposed the ban for the second time from Sep 2003 to Sep 2005 as soon as the first ban period came to an end. But again banned for the third time on Feb 08, 2006 after almost a four month relaxation; the interdict on SIMI activists further strengthened after the 2006 Malegaon blasts.
The government of India has also arrested many SIMI activists just after the Mumbai train blast and for their concealed activities citing their involvement in many violent incidents and their association with many non-government organisations through which they pose a grave threat to national security by disrupting the very essence of national harmony.
Reason of ban
Citing their involvement with militant organisations like Jaish-e-Mohd and Lakshar-e-Tiaba the Central administration states that the organisation is capable of creating communal disharmony by polluting the young minds of the people. As the fundamentalist ideology of the wing is concerned it has been doing their subversive activities with anti-national sentiments that are destructive for the entire secular fabric of the nation.
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