[Reader-list] “SIMI: The Open And Hidden Faces Of Indian Jihad”

[Pawan Durani]

http://maloykrishnadhar.com/simi-the-open-and-hidden-faces-of-indian-jihad
SIMI: The Open And Hidden Faces Of Indian Jihad*Posted by: Maloy Krishna
Dhar* on Thursday, September 25th, 2008

History is not the graveyard of the past. It is the mother of present and
womb for the future. Most current event analysers tend to disregard the
history and fail to link the present with the past. The same mistakes are
being committed by certain section of the media which claims to be the
fathers of sting-journalism. Small people attempting to paint a sinner as
saint commit colossal mistakes.

A Nation's unpreparedness for colossal natural disasters like tsunami and
earthquakes are somewhat pardonable. However, strategic unpreparedness to
anticipate, analyse, estimate and visualise threats and disasters arising
out of political and administrative naïveté and adoption of a fire-fighting
attitude to visibly advancing political, military, proxy-war and jihadi
cyclones cannot be pardoned even if the elasticity of democracy and
tolerance are extended to infinity.

This observation is more relevant to certain media coverages and attitude of
certain political parties. Union ministers Lalu Yadav and Rambilas Paswan
sang paean of the SIMI and they were accompanied by Mulayam Singh Yadav even
after the Supreme Court branded SIMI as a 'terrorist organisation.' They
were joined by the so-called Shahi Imam of Delhi's Jama Masjid and other
several other Muslim leaders who visited the village hoe of Abul Basher
after his arrest in connection with Ahmedabad serial bombings. Such blatant
communal display does not repair the damagee that continues to widen. Such
vote-bank tear-shedding by Union Cabinet Ministers weakens the very
foundation of history and pushes the country towards disintegration. Once
upon a time one Jagat Seth had decided that his business interest was higher
than political interest of Bengal. He was ably supported by Mir Zafar. Seth
had even loaned Rs. 2 crores to fortune seeker clerk Robert Clive. Do our
ministers and leaders like to compete with them? Have they no sense of
history?

Present India, was born out of communal strife, bitterness of Muslim
separatism and sky-full of hatred for everything Hindu. Those were the
underlying poisonous fuel with which Jinnah flew down to Karachi to be
crowned as the Shaenshah of the new Muslim Homeland-Pakistan. Sixty one
years after the clinical operation desired by Jinnah was accomplished, his
dreamland lay in tatters, the subcontinental Muslims, nearly 500 million,
continue to reel under privation, religious bigotry, economic backwardness
and suffer from the same old canopy of 'living together separately.'

This article is not the correct space to unfold the entire history of pains
that hurt the people of the subcontinent. However, certain forces created by
the seeds of hatred and separateness can be examined in the background of
the poisonous clouds that had continued to haunt the subcontinent from 1857
to 1947. The Indian National Congress vainly continued to suffer from the
delusion that it represented all the communities in United India and Sir
Sayyid Ahmad to Muhammad Ali Jinnah declared unequivocally that the Muslim
political congregation (Muslim League) had the sole right to represent the
community. History of this delusion and reality has been well recorded and
can be accessed through impartially written history books and not through
Gandhi-Nehru eulogies.

In post-independent India also the Muslims felt the need of organising
themselves around their religious institutions, community congregations and
several activated bodies outside the presumed umbrellas of Congress, Left
parties and other fringe political mushrooms.

Jamait-e-Islami founded by Maududi in 1941 to espouse Islamic exclusivism,
separate Muslim identity and establishment of Islamic rule in India was
split into two parts: JeI Hind and JeI Pak. Later JeI Bangladesh was added
to the list. In Pakistan and Bangladesh the JeI function as political
parties. However, in India the Jamait has not taken part in electoral
politics but has supported Muslim groups and candidates which supported the
core ideology of the organisation.

A secretive organisation like the RSS, the JeI Hind maintained low political
profile but actively participated against the spate of political agitation
between 1973-75 (JP Movement) that wanted to remove Indira Gandhi from power
and restore real people's democracy. The RSS had supported the movement for
its own reasons and the JeI also took active part in the agitation as they
were highly disturbed by the acts of Turkman Gate demolition, resettlement
of Muslims to certain clusters in East and North Delhi and drastic
implementation of family planning. A Muslim lady, supposed to be a close
associate of Sanjay Gandhi, had even operated a couple of family planning
establishments in the walled city areas of Delhi. In short, the Muslim
sentiment against Indira led Congress was highly vitiated and the Muslims
felt that they were specially targeted for discrimination and
socio-political and economic isolation. They were already high-strung over
the defeat of Pakistan in 1971. The singed Muslim sentiment was also
agitated by direct and indirect stimulation from the Muslim educational and
religious institutes like the Aligarh, Jamia Milia, Nadwa, Firangi Mahall,
Tablighi Jammat etc. During the emergency regime most of the important
Jamait leaders were put behind the bars.

Other historic events around the time of birth of the Students Islamic
Movement of India on April 25, 1977) require examination. Normal JeI student
front is known as Islami-Jamait-e-Talaba. Such bodies existed before the
SIMI was floated.

Right after defeat in Bangladesh war (1971) Z. A. Bhutto in collaboration
with Jamait-e-Islami Pakistan utilised the Indian wing of the Jamiat to
depute teachers and preachers to Kashmir valley to impart Islamic studies to
the Kashmiri students attached to madrasas, Sufi Dargahs (holy mosques like
Charar-e-Sharif) and other educational institutions. The objective was to
subvert the Sufi-minded Kashmiri Muslims and to convert them to hardcore
Hanafi Sunni Islamists.

This mission was also sustained by Zia-ul-Haq. According to intelligence
reports Zia's government provided financial support to the JeI Pak for
mobilising the JeI Hind to achieve ideological conquest of Kashmir. The
developments in Indian Kashmir and till 1989 when Pakistan unfolded its
proxy war in so called IHK, bear testimony to the fact that the JeI Hind in
collaboration with its counterpart in Pakistan and the ISI had succeeded in
vastly destroying the moderate Islamic culture and Kashmiriyat of the people
of the valley. Concerned agencies had kept the government of India
adequately informed about silent cultural and religious revolution in
Kashmir that could lead to political rebellion.

Inside Pakistan General Zia took command and introduced total Islamisation
of the country. In Bangladesh Mujib was assassinated by the pro-Pakistani
army officers and in 1977 General Zia-ur-Rahman allowed the Jamait-e-Islami
leaders (Pak), who collaborated with Pakistan army, to return to Bangladesh
and open their fundamentalist shop.

During 1977 Janata Dal rule in Delhi the Jamait-e-Islami leaders reopened
their shop with great enthusiasm and tried to fill in the political vacuum
left by Muslim alienation from the Congress. While still under ban the
organisation expanded its membership to over 100,000. New halqas (branches)
were opened in seventy locations all over India. The All India Muslim
Students Union and other Muslim youth and students bodies were directed to
organise meetings under cover of Dawa (service) and mobilise opinion of the
Muslims by touring the interior areas. Main focus was in Uttar Pradesh,
Bihar, Assam, West Bengal, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Madhya
Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu. Historical facts do not support
the decision as to why the JeIH went for opening a new youth and student
body. Ahmadullah Siddiqi, who started the organisation, was an important
member of the JeIH. Had the JeIH wanted an organistaion ostensively outside
its official structure foe carrying out different types of activities?
Perhaps, yes.

It is on April 25, 1977 Mohammad Ahmadullah Siddiqi of Aligarh Muslim
University, the alma mater of Muslim renaissance, founded the Islamic
Students Movement of India. A scholar in Physics Ahmadullah was inspired to
change streams of massmedia and journalism for projecting better image of
Muslims of India. He started it as a united platform for Muslim students and
youth wing of the JeI Hind with the objective to restore the Caliphate for
the unity of Ummah (Muslim community) by rejecting the concept of
nationalism, secularism and democracy.

Though he stoutly denied after settling down in the US any inclination to
Islamic fundamentalism his aim was to establish Dar-ul-Islam (land of
Islam). The ideological inspirations were derived from Muslim thinkers who
had launched Islamic movements in the subcontinent in the past, e.g. Shah
Walliullah, Sayyid Ahmad and Haji Shariat Allah and Maulana Maududi, the
founder of the Jamait-e Islami (JEI). SIMI was deeply inspired by the
Maududi's goal to make Islam the supreme organizing principle for the social
and political life of the Muslim community.

Personally Ahmadullah was a member of the International Islamic Students
Federation, Rabita-ul-Alam-e-Islami and was profoundly influenced by the
Iranian revolution. His speeches in the Aligarh University testify his
affinity to revolutionary Islamic resurgence. He had organised protest
demonstrations during Yassir Arafat's visit to India on grounds that he was
a 'stooge' of the US. Ahmadullah was a staunch supporter of the Iranian
backed Hamas that was making space in Palestine and Lebanon with Iranian
support.

He was Assistant Secretary General of IIFSO and had joined Jamait-e-Islami
of India in 1973. He has also served on the Board of Directors and Governing
Boards of Institute of Objective Studies, New Delhi, India, Centre for
Studies on Sciences, Aligarh, India, Students Islamic Trust of Indian and
All-India Council for Muslim Educational Upliftment, Bombay, India. Later he
renounced the violent activities of the SIMI and declared that he had not
set up the movement to fight armed jihad.

Mohammad Ahmadullah Siddiqi migrated to US in 1981 and is now a professor of
Journalism and Public Relations at Western Illinois University Macomb,
Illinois. Dr. Siddiqi now serves as Honorary Vice President of the American
Islamic College Chicago and is a member of the College's Board of Directors.
Even after rooting in the US Dr. Siddiqi had not left keen interest in the
welfare of the Muslims. He is the founding member and Secretary General of
the North American Association of Muslims Professionals and Scholars
(NAAMPS).

<http://maloykrishnadhar.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/image001.jpg>
*Dr. Mohammad Ahmadullah Siddiqi*

After his departure from India the SIMI had started rooting in different
parts of the country recruiting over 1000 Ansars or registered leading
members and about 50,000 Ikhwans (supporting members). SIMI published
several magazines- Tahreek, Hindi; Iqraa, Gujrati; Rupantar, Bengali; Sedhi
Madal, Tamil; Vivekam, Malayalam; Movement in English and Shaheen Times in
English for children. Tauqeer, now wanted in Ahmedabad bomb blast edited the
Shaheen Times for some time.

*Objectives and Ideology of the SIMI:*

* Governing of human life on the basis of the Holy Quran

* Propagation of Islam

* Jihad for the cause of Islam

SIMI attempts to utilize the youth in the propagation of Islam and also to
mobilize support for Jihad and establish a Shariat-based Islamic rule
through 'Islami Inqulab' (Islamic revolution). As the organization does not
believe in a nation-state, it does not believe in the Indian Constitution or
the secular order. Among its various objectives, the 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.
Ideologically, SIMI maintains that the concepts of secularism, democracy and
nationalism, keystones of the Indian Constitution, are antithetical to
Islam. Parallel to its rejection of secularism, democracy and nationalism is
its oft-repeated objective of restoration of the 'khilafat', emphasis on
'ummah' (Muslim brotherhood), and the need for a Jihad to establish the
supremacy of Islam.
In recent years the SIMI started preaching that partition of the country had
not solved problems of the Muslims. Nearly 20 crores Muslims of India, in
combination with the Muslim population of Pakistan and Bangladesh form the
largest mass of Muslims and they have the assigned right to shift the centre
of Islamic gravity from Saudi Arabia and Egypt to Delhi, from where the
Muslim rulers once ran a parallel Khilafat. India should the centre of the
new Khilafat. In a speech at Ujjain in 2005 he had even mentioned about
regaining Taj-e-Hind.

*"To bring Islamic revolution in the country we considered the parliamentary
system election process is useless and futile. It is difficult to keep the
Islamic revolutionary character during the process of election. Therefore
SIM will not participate in the election or will not give votes to anybody.
During the time of election SIM will expose the nature of the system
democracy, socialism, secularism, nationalism etc. and ask the people to
boycott the election and march for the Islamic revolution."
*
At some stage the SIMI dropped the last 'I' and converted to SIM-Students
Islamic Movement. Its website was also known as www.simofindia.org. Some
media hype after Abu Basher's arrest that SIMI has changed name to SIM is
cheaper than wayside rag. SIMI had adopted a new front-name Indian
Mujahideen as it was still involved in legal battle to get over the stigma
of government ban. Indian Mujahideen name was devised to give impression
that jihad had taken indigenous character and it had no link with foreign
jihadi tanzeems. This should not mislead any objective observer and analyst.
The objectives of the organisation were spelt out in its website before it
went out of the electronic stream. Some quotes are revealing and should be
perused by leaders like Lalu, Mulayam and Rambilas etc who see no evil in
anything that give them drops of vote-milk.

*"The SIM believes that the root cause of this universal chaos and anarchy
is the prevalent system, which is oriented in the rejection God. The SIM
feels it is essential to emphasis that no political parties or organization
can bring about a solid and constructive change through secularism in the
light of their erratic ideologies. The only way to bring about the real
change is through recognition of God, the Creator and Sustainer, and leading
a life in the light of divine guidance and thus establishing an Islamic
life. On the eve of election in the atmosphere of varied noise pollution,
the Students Islamic Movement of India appeals to all Indians, especially
Muslims not to get consumed by the political slogans and utopias, rather go
for the reconstruction of individual and collective life through the natural
and realistic system of Islam."*
*

"In such a sorry state of affairs, it is the responsibility of this "last
community" the "best community", the "middle community", to rise up and face
the challenges that surround it, to revive Deen, to lead and guide not only
the Islamic world, but all of humanity along the 'Straight Path' and rescue
it from the clutches of Satanic powers. It is the demand of the time that
Muslim youth should struggle for the superiority and establishment of Deen
and the revival of Islam in the light of the holy Qur'an and Sunnah. It is
with this very purpose that SIMI strives tirelessly throughout the length
and breadth of this country, creating young hearts throbbing with the desire
of revival and establishment of Islam. …Thousands of students have answered
this call and are marching forward defiantly tremendous odds, ready to
sacrifice everything in the way of Allah."
*

*"Our assessment of various (Islamic) organizations will be based on the
following definition of the Islamic movement. "All conscious efforts
directed to establish Islam simultaneously challenging the battle as well as
Taghooti forces."*

*What is Taghooti?*

This is an Arabic word that generally means forces that are antithesis to
the forces of the Allah. Hudhayfah Ibnul-Yamaan a close follower of the
Prophet interpreted this expression of battle between the forces of the
Allah and the forces of evil in the following way– He asked: Messenger of
Allaah, no doubt, we had an evil time (i.e. the days of jahiliyyah or
ignorance) and Allaah brought us a good time (i.e. Islamic period) through
which we are now living. Will there be a bad time after this good time? He
(the Prophet) said: *Yes. I said: Will there be a good time after this bad
time? He said: Yes. I said: Will there be a bad time after good time? He
said: Yes. I said: How? Whereupon he said: There will be leaders who will
not be led by my guidance and who will not adopt my ways?*
*

There will be among them men who will have the hearts of devils in the
bodies of human beings. I said: What should I do Messenger of Allah, if I
(happen) to live in that time? He replied: You will listen to the ameer and
carry out his orders; even if your back is flogged and your wealth is
snatched, you should listen and obey.

*

It is good enough to stop here. SIMI's objective is to resume the war
against the infidels who have forced bad times on the Muslims and to restore
the good times of Islamic rule.

It has been claimed that the SIMI has over 1000 Ansars and over 50,000
Ikhwans. No reliable data are available about the territorial distribution
of the cadre. However, since the SIMI was hooked up by the ISI of Pakistan
and was drawn to the vortex of Afghan Mujahideen war sponsored by the CIA,
Saudi Intelligence and the ISI some of the radical SIMI leaders
reconstructed the original ideological architecture of the organisation.

By 1990 the concerned agencies noticed that nearly 15 SIMI volunteers from
UP, Delhi, Andhra and Maharashtra had travelled to Kathmandu from where they
were transported to Pakistan. Twelve of them acclimatised in training camps
run by the ISI in Quetta area and returned to India. More significant was
the observations of clandestine contacts between the Delhi's Pakistan
embassy-based intelligence officials and some of the SIMI leaders in Delhi,
Ajmer Sharif and Mumbai. These well recorded evidences were clinching.

Later, at the height of Sikh turmoil in Punjab three SIMI functionaries from
Aligarh were tapped by the ISI to locate themselves temporarily to a hotel
in Maharajganj Market, Kathmandu and assist the Sikh militants in
transporting and safe-housing arms and explosives in certain places in
western UP. These arms and explosives were recovered by the concerned
agencies.

Your author had the opportunity in unearthing that SIMI-Pakistan link.

Government ministers who shed vote-bank tears for SIMI should ask their own
agencies to apprise them of these reports, if the agencies can trust such on
these vote-hungry politicians.

For those in and out of government, especially for the vote-hungry
politicians, who doubt about SIMI's early contact with Pakistan I quote from
V. Balachandran former Additional Secretary RAW, *"Reports about SIMI's
involvement in recent bombings have ignored that a triangular process of
punishing India had started much earlier. The first judicially tested
evidence of Pakistani-Khalistani-SIMI nexus had surfaced in 1992 ending up
with a Supreme Court judgment on 9 January 2001, which everybody seems to
have forgotten. The case which was contested for nine years in several
courts started with the arrest of Lal Singh, alias Manjit Singh, an
ISI-trained Khalistani militant on 16 July 1992 at Dadar railway station by
Gujarat Police on prior intelligence. A search of his safe house in
Ahmedabad on 25 July revealed considerable quantity of arms and explosives.
The CBI took over the case in August 1992. Investigation revealed his
connections with Basheer of Kerala who had organised a SIMI convention in
1991 in Mumbai where the linkage was firmed up. Basheer absconded, but 21
persons including Pakistani national Mohammad Sharief, Mumbai residents
Tahir Jamal, Saquib Nachan and Shoaib Mukhtiar were apprehended. Lal Singh
confessed planning to blow up Madras Stock Exchange for which a survey was
done on 2 July 1992, besides trying to assassinate South Indian Hindu
leaders and police officers. The Supreme Court confirmed life sentence to
Lal Singh and Mohammad Sharief, while others were given ten-year prison
terms. Absconding Basheer, a postgraduate diploma holder in aeronautical
engineering, was later suspected to have been involved in the 2003 Mulund,
Ghatkopar, Gateway and Zaveri Bazaar blasts, besides being a SIMI
fundraiser." *Police & State (published in Covert-Sept 16 to 30th). SIMI
hand was noticed in Bombay Stock exchange bomb blast (Dawood Ibrahim fiat).
The list is too long and need not be reproduced here.

Based on certain reliable reports the approximate strength of the SIMI in
different states is given below. Any reader having better figures and data
may correct me. For brevity A has been used for Ansar and I for Ikhwan. The
estimates of known figures are based on several agency reports and the
author's personal ground studies.

Assam=15 A, 600 I; Manipur= 5 A, 15 I; Tripura=8 A, 12 I; West Bengal= 50 A,
400 I; Bihar= 40 A. 430 I; Jharkhand= 25 A, 200 I; Uttar Pradesh= 300 A,
1000 I; Delhi= 40 A, 600 I; Orissa= 5 A, 15 I; Madhya Pradesh=80 A, 480 I;
Chhatisgarh= 45 A, 150 I; Rajasthan=80 A, 275 I; Gujarat=100 A, 280 I;
Maharashtra 200 A, 1050 I; Andhra Pradesh= 60 A, 200 I; Karnataka=30 A, 150
I; Kerala= 43 A, 120 I; Tamil Nadu=26 A, 145 I.

*For visual understanding the spread is depicted in the sectional maps:*

[image: Known SIMI locations in North-West& East
India]<http://maloykrishnadhar.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/image003.png>

Known SIMI locations in North-West& East India

These locations have not been pinned arbitrarily. Almost every district in
the mentioned States has units of SIMI, besides in the educational and
professional institutions. Most of these are located in cell and module form
where the strength is not overwhelmingly visible. Some units have been
drafted to the underground outfit: Indian Mujahideen. The rest try to go by
legitimate student/youth labels.

However, the earlier style of recruiting the youths from madrasa centres has
given way to general and minority educational institutions and hostels, IT
training centres, IT facility vendors, professional institutions and
population clusters which are nearly impenetrable to peoples of other
communities and even to the government functionaries. The pattern is similar
almost all over the country with exception that in rural areas of UP, Bihar,
Bengal, Assam and the mining and industrial belt of Jharkhand mosques,
madrasas, labour unions and people belonging to service (manual) sectors are
exploited for field operations purposes. In a city like Delhi and Mumbai the
pattern gives way to intensified word of the mouth, clandestine video CD,
and limited cable operations etc. The picture is nearly the same in the
southern part of the country.

[image: Known SIMI Locations in Southern
India]<http://maloykrishnadhar.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/image005.png>

Known SIMI Locations in Southern India

The SIMI, like most motivated terror groups which are inspired by religious
fanaticism has an ideological base. This has been explained in earlier
paragraphs. It has a well laid down apparatus divided into two clear
segments: open segment and underground segment. The open façade looks like a
loosely structured youth and student body running indoctrination classes,
managing print magazines, websites and organising cultural events. The other
part of the façade consists of a labyrinthine structured body, right from
the President to the Ikhwans assigned with different tasks. It is more or
less like an underground tech-apparatus of any revolutionary organisation
modelled after the Hamas. The underground apparatus is still in developing
stage and has not taken the solid shape like its counterparts in Pakistan
such as Lashkar and Jais. An illustrative diagram would make it easier for
the readers to understand:

[image: Approximate Tech-structure of the
SIMI]<http://maloykrishnadhar.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/image007.png>

Approximate Tech-structure of the SIMI

[image: Pakistan and SIMI-IM
links]<http://maloykrishnadhar.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/image009.png>

Pakistan and SIMI-IM links

[image: The structural formation of Jamait-e-Islami, parent organisation of
the SIMI]<http://maloykrishnadhar.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/image011.png>

The structural formation of Jamait-e-Islami, parent organisation of the SIMI

However, our investigating agencies have so far been studying the SIMI on
the basis of personalities and certain basted hideouts. I suppose they are
required to go into the labyrinthine spade work that has been established by
the SIMI, with support from Jamait-e-Islami Hind and other jihadi
organisations. Interestingly, a SIMI Ikhwan can also be found to be an
active worker of Deendar Anjuman or Muslim Liberation Tiger Army (Assam).
There is no ban on cross-organisations membership. A SIMI Ansar can also be
a member of the HuJI. There are instances of SIMI Ansars and Ikhwans
collaborating with Lashkar-e-Toiba etc Pakistani tanzeems.

SIMI leadership, so far unfolded, were identified as Dr Shahid Badar Falah
functioning as the national president and Safdar Nagori as the general
secretary. Delhi Police arrested Falah on September 28, 2001 after the
organisation was banned. Safdar Nagori, the next president was arrested by
police from Indore along with twelve Nagori is known to have firm linkage
with the ISI and was in the process of linking us with Taliban. He considers
Mullah Omar as the Amir ul Momineeen. Other leaders like Mohammad Aamir,
(Uttar Pradesh unit chief), a prime accused in the Kanpur riots of March 16,
was arrested on April 25, 2006. Abul Bashar Qasmi, who succeeded after
Safdar Nagori's arrest, was apprehended on August 16, 2008 from a village in
Azamgarh. He had masterminded the July 26, 2008 Ahmedabad (Gujarat) serial
bomb blasts, and is suspected as a vital link in Bangaluru, Jaipur and Delhi
blasts.

SIMI leaders are supported by the World Assembly of Muslim Youth (WAMY),
Riyadh. It is affiliated to the International Islamic Federation of
Students' Organizations (IIFSO) in Kuwait. Jamait-e-Islami Pakistan and
Markaz-ud-Dawa-al-Irshad are known to have funded the SIMI. Chicago-based
Consultative Committee of Indian Muslims (related to the founder president
of SIMI) supports SIMI morally and financially. SIMI's links and active
collaboration with Bangladesh JeI, Islamic Chhtra Shibir, and HUJI are well
established. Several operations, especially the Benaras, Hyderabad, and
Mumbai blasts were jointly accomplished by the SIMI Ansars, Ikhwans and the
HUJI elements from Bangladesh. SIMI volunteers had undergone training with
Hizbul Mujahideen in Pak occupied Kashmir. Three Jalgaon (Maharashtra)
youths Sheikh Asif Supdu, Sheikh Khalid Iqbal and Sheikh Mohammad Hanif had
reportedly died in Indian border force firing in 2000, while crossing over
from Pakistan. SIMI links with Lashkar-e-Toiba has been proved beyond doubt.
They were partners in several blast incidents in Maharashtra and Gujarat.
Interrogation of Nagori and others have brought out that they were trying to
establish linkages with Tehrik-e-Taliban, Pakistan and Afghan Talibans for
training and material assistance for carrying out jihad in India.

Besides linkage with smaller jihadist bodies the SIMI also functions through
certain front organisations. Some of the front organisations are: Muslim
Youth Cultural Forum, Muslim Youth Front, All-Bengal Islamic Students
Conference, Khidmat-e-Khalaq, Ameer-ul-Muslimeen, Darul-Khuda, Juhapura
Youth Federation, Students Islamic Federation, Sauhridaya Library, Quran
Foundation, Minority Rights Watch, Ittehadul Musalmeen and Naujawan-e-Islam.
Some of these outfits are state-specific, while others operate on a national
or regional level. At the national level, Simi uses Tahrik
Tahaffuj-e-sha'aire Islam (TTSI), Wahadat-e-Islami, Tahrik-e-Ehyaa-e-Ummat
and Tehrik-Talaba-eArabia for over ground activities.

In Southern India, besides the Musli Munnetra Kazagham and Deendar Anjuman
etc the SIMI is connected with the following organisations: National
Development Front (NDF), the People's Democratic Party (PDP) of Coimbatore
serial blasts accused Abdul Nasser Mahdani, and several fringe outfits,
including the Muslim Youth Cultural Forum, Karuna Foundation, Muslim Aikya
Vedi, Sahridaya Vedi, Samskara Vedi, Solidarity Students Movement and the
Movement for Protection of Islamic Symbols and Monuments.

In Kerala Shibli Paidhikar headed a strong group and had set up at least 20
modules. They had organised training in forest areas in which a maulana from
Lakshadwip had also taken part. Similar training camps were organised at
Hubli, Karnataka, Indore, Ujjain, Badodra, Aurangabad and Bijapur. The
instructors trained the Ansars in physical training, indoctrination, use of
explosives and fabrication of IED and other techniques of terrorist strike
in urban areas. Downloaded websites of Hamas, Lashkar etc were projected to
illustrate fidayeens training. An illustrative training manual obtained from
a delicate source contain the following subjects, for daily training:

a.Prayer, b. taqrir (lecture) on Islam and motivation quoting profusely from
Quran, c. Physical exercises modelled after army physical training and as
depicted in Al Qaeda training video, d. lectures on atrocities on Muslims,
e. firing from air rifle using targets and pellets, f. theoretical and
practical lessons in bomb fabrication using RDX, locally available
materials, preparation of Molotov Cocktail, g. ground surveillance , h.
exploiting sympathetic contacts in explosive and ordnance factories and
ex-army personnel, i. DVD films on guerrilla warfare, urban terrorism etc.

Important leaders who attended such trainings along with other Ansras are
Safdar Nagori, Abul Basar, Adnan of Bijapur, Shibli of Ernakulam, Amir
Parvaiz-Ujjain, Kamruddin-Ujjain, Sameer Salim-Ujjain (computer expert),
Asadullah-Hubli, Allah Bux-Karnataka, Dr. Moon Rose-Belgaum,
Samsuddin-Ahmedabad, Md. Yunus Mansuri-Ahmedabad, Razik, Zahid-Ahmedabad,
Imran, Usman Agarbatti, Kayamuddin @ Ashfaq Iqrar-Baroda, Mehboob-Khandwa,
Imran-Khandwa, Md. Ali-Jabbalpur, Shahid, Iqrar-Ujjain, Subhan Qureshi-Mira
Road Mumbai, Khalid Kharemba, Abul Sar, Habib, Wasik, Shahid Badr Falahi,
Faizan- Azamgarh, Shahbaz Hussain-Aminabad, Kalim Akhtar-Lucknow, Salim,
Javed-Lakhimpur, Mistabul Hussain, Rafiq-West Bengal, Amir Mehfuz,
Arif-Allahabad, Hummam-Sultanpur. These are names of only a part of the top
leaders who have been trained in demolition works, and it is not the
end-list.

The comprehensive list of active and leading Ansars highlight place-names
like Ujjain belt, Ahmedabad and Azamgarh. The first recorded communal
conflagration in Ujjain-Dhar belt had taken place in 1695, the first
recorded Ahmedabad communal conflagration was in 1704 (jeweller Kapurchand
case in the court of Emperor Farrukhshiar) and Azmgarh in UP's 'purvannchal'
had earned communal notoriety way back in 1893 during 'Gorakhshini'
agitation. There have been repeated communal conflagrations in the
Gorakhour-Azamgarh belt at regular intervals between 1897 and 1947. Muslims
rioted on the day of Holi in 1975 and on 26th January on the occasion of
Republic Day, simply because some people raised 'Bandemataram' slogan.The
latest incident involving firing on the procession of Yogi Adityanath, a BJP
MP and a notorious Hindu protagonist is fresh in memory. The involvement of
Azamgarh youths in Delhi bombing should be understood that in that light. It
is a strong fort of jihadis in Eastern UP.

Pakistan had exported jihad to the mainland India from Kashmir and it was
ably assisted by the DGFI from Bangladesh. Gradually, after testing Indian
unpreparedness, they started sending own jihadi tanzeems to perch the flag
of Islam through violence. During last 20 years such efforts have borne
fruit. *SIMI's umbilical growth, the Indian Mujahideen and other tanzeems in
different parts of India have emerged as the open faces of hidden
International Islamic Jihad.* They may change names but the kernel of
SIMI-Lashkar-ISI-DGFI linkages would remain intact.

Unfortunately our political leaders and the people in general treat these as
terrorist incidents. What is happening in India today is not terrorism; it
is the first stage of unveiling the open face of concealed jihad. Unless the
political masters take a lesson or two in national security matters and
threat posed by forces like Maoist revolutionaries and the Islamists they
would not even be in a position to bargain with the enemies from abroad and
within like Jagat Seth, Omi Chand and Mirzafar had vainly bargained with the
determined colonialists who inched in taking advantage of Indian ignorance
and greed-be it for money or vote.

The Nation is more important than a few more Votes; Mr. and Mrs.
Politicians. The sand of history is running out. It is time to Act by
shedding all pretensions of 'misplaced interpretation of secularism' and
criminal apathy towards the festering sores of Jihadi advances and Maoist
movements. These sores are becoming gangrenous.