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Analysis: SIMI crackdown helps moderators
New Delhi, April 10, 2008 The recent crackdown by the Indian police and security agencies against top members of the banned Students Islamic Movement of India will help Muslim moderates who have been fighting to marginalize extremists in the community, experts say. "The morale of Muslim religious and political leaders, who are considered to be moderates opposes to SIMI, will go up with the recent arrest of the top leadership of the pro-violence Muslim student group," said Zafrul-Islam-Khan, a noted Islamic moderate and writer. He said the time has come when moderates who have been fighting against jihadi elements occupying top leadership of SIMI to take the lead and mobilize the community to throw pro-militancy leaders out of Islamic political and religious groups. Police and security agencies in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh recently attacked a hideout in the industrial town of Indore and arrested almost all the top-ranking SIMI leaders, including its national General Secretary Safder Nagori. India regards the groups to be a terrorist organization. During interrogation, militant leaders said they had a global ideological and political road map and took inspiration from the Taliban. SIMI was formed in Aligarh in 1977 to revitalize the network of Jamaat-e-Islami, a religious group, to counter the growing influence of Marxism at Aligarh Muslim University and other campuses. Since its inception, the group regarded Islam as a political project, which drew secular Muslims close to it. The first transformation of SIMI toward militancy was witnessed in 1982 when the leadership of the organization came out in support of the Pakistani regime led by Gen. Zia-ul-Huq. Jamaat immediately distanced itself from the group. It was also the time SIMI started growing in India and after the demolition of historic Babri mosque by Hindu zealots, the organization turned into a militant group that espoused violence to take revenge for the demolition of the mosque. The year 2001 was the turning point for SIMI when more than 25,000 activists held a national conference in Mumbai where they declared: "Mohammed is our commander, the Koran is our Constitution and martyrdom is our one desire." The same year, Islamist rebels carried out an attack on Indian Parliament and the government imposed a ban on the activities of SIMI and other pro-militancy outfits. Most leaders and activists of the group were arrested and many of them went underground. India says Nagori, who fled, became the top leader and clandestinely began rebuilding the group's network. He established links with Pakistan-based Hizb-ul-Mujahedin and carried out successful terrorist strikes in various parts of India, India says. Following intelligence inputs suggesting SIMI's involvement in terrorist activities, security agencies conducted raids in various states and arrested more than two dozens SIMI leaders and activists. In Uttar Pradesh state, where SIMI was born, the state government admitted that SIMI has a presence in 35 districts. "Officially SIMI is an outlawed militant organization but it still has sympathizers and a strong presence," said a senior police official attached to the state intelligence department. "Even the successive governments in the state have acknowledged the presence of SIMI. Tackling SIMI in Uttar Pradesh is a sensitive issue because it is linked to political ambitions and vote-bank politics." The general assumption among secular political parties in Uttar Pradesh and other Muslim-dominated states is that Muslims across the country would react badly if action is taken against SIMI or its members. ''Since we had to come to power, we did not arrest anybody from SIMI. Be it Ayodhya or Sankatmochan blasts, SIMI was not directly involved,'' said Mulayam Singh Yadav, a former chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, who heads the Samajwadi Party, which has a stronghold among the Muslim community. "SIMI is not a terrorist outfit. If there is someone, we should fight against that individual. Even I have been accused of being a member of SIMI," said Shivpal Yadav, a state lawmaker and Mulayam Singh Yadav's brother. Moderates in Muslim society have a serious complaint with authorities, particularly with the police. They say police and security forces carry out fake encounters and arrests in order to add up the numbers of militants killed. In a recent such case, police in Madhya Pradesh state on Tuesday arrested Nadim Ahmed, a journalist with Milli Gazette, a pro-moderator Urdu-language newspaper, who had gone to cover the arrest of SIMI leadership in Indore. "We have serious apprehension that he would also be declared a SIMI activist because Madhya Pradesh is currently being ruled by pro-Hindutva party BJP," said. M Ahmed Kazmi, a senior journalist. Community Email This Article Comment On This Article Related Links The Long War - Doctrine and Application
China cracks two terrorist groups: state media
Beijing (AFP) April 10, 2008China has cracked two terrorist groups in its heavily Muslim west that were planning attacks aimed at the Beijing Olympics, the nation's security ministry said Thursday. |
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