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Indian Police Arrest Chief Of Islamic Group
NEW DELHI, Sept 28 (News Agencies) - India arrested the leader and three activists of an Islamic student organization that authorities claim "supports" Osama bin Laden, a day after four people were killed during a protest against a ban on the group, police said.
Shahid Badr, national president of the Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI), was arrested along with three others in New Delhi after the organization was banned on Thursday, the Press Trust of India (PTI) said.
"They were arrested as they continued to hold public meetings and provoke people for violence, despite our appeal not to do so," joint commissioner of police Amod Kanth was quoted as saying by PTI.
Badr had recently criticized the Indian government for its offer of support to the United States in its "war against terrorism".
On Thursday, protests erupted in the northern Indian city of Lucknow after New Delhi banned the Muslim group.
Police fired on demonstrators killing four of them, a spokesman for Lucknow city administration said. Earlier, officials said five people had been killed.
Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee has ordered an inquiry into the police shootings. He was also scheduled to meet senior representatives of the Muslim community late Friday in New Delhi.
A curfew had been imposed in several areas of Lucknow and the city was bridling with tension, according to reports.
The federal government had sent in security reinforcements mainly to patrol 12 "sensitive" areas in Lucknow, the spokesman said.
Officials in New Delhi said the group was outlawed following reports that some SIMI leaders had close links with Islamic groups such as the Lashkar-e-Taiba and Hizbul Mujahedin, both struggling for independence in Kashmir.
They said intelligence reports also linked SIMI to a string of bombings in the states of Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra and New Delhi, and added the attacks were conducted at the behest of Hizbul Mujahedin.
SIMI, founded in 1977 to usher in an "Islamic revolution" in India, has denied any links with Kashmiri Muslim organizations.
Besides Badr, Delhi police also arrested Asif Mohammed Khan, a municipal councilor, who allegedly printed provocative posters praising Saudi dissident Osama bin Laden and pasted them on buses and public places, police commissioner Kanth said.
According to PTI, police conducted raids on SIMI's offices and hideouts across the country on Friday. SIMI activists were arrested in Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and and Kerala.
Police sealed SIMI's office in the eastern city of Calcutta and detained more than 20 people for questioning, police commissioner Sujoy Chakraborty told Agence France-Presse (AFP).
According to Gaurav Dutta, a senior intelligence official based in Calcutta, the student group had many branches in West Bengal, which borders Bangladesh.
"SIMI's activities in the border districts of West Bengal have been on the rise because of their close proximity to Bangladesh and there is evidence that Pakistan's intelligence agency, ISI, has links with the SIMI," Dutta said.
Political reaction to the banning of SIMI was mixed. Most political parties welcomed the ban, but some demanded that rightwing Hindu organizations allied to Prime Minister Vajpayee's ruling Hindu nationalist BJP party should also be outlawed for their activities.
"You cannot go selectively banning organizations by which you are actually compounding the problem," said Sitaram Yechuri, leader of the Communist Party of India, Marxist.
Meanwhile, India's top Muslim cleric Friday said the United States would face the wrath of Muslims worldwide if it attacks Afghanistan.
Syed Ahmed Bukhari told a prayer meeting that the U.S. had whipped up war fever "by expressing its intention to attack helpless, poor and hungry Afghanistan on the pretension of suppressing Islamic terrorism".
"If the U.S. attacks Afghanistan, Muslims throughout the world would consider it an attack on Islam and so, they would not hesitate to sacrifice all what they have in protection of their religion," he added.
"What is the fault of Afghan people? Is the establishment of an Islamic system a crime? Is adopting teachings of Islam a crime?" he asked worshippers at New Delhi's huge Jama Masjid mosque, the largest in India.
Bukhari, the imam at Jama Masjid, said Western countries had rallied to support the U.S. stand on bin Laden without waiting to see if there was any proof of his complicity.
"I ask these nations whether they are ready to be united in getting Palestinian land restored to them [Palestinians]?" the cleric said.
"I asked the U.S. to give solid evidence against Afghanistan and Osama bin Laden to the Organization of the Islamic Conference. But the U.S. is looking hither and thither because it does not have any solid proof with it.
"The U.S. and its allied nations, before raging war against terrorism, should take responsibility for the injustice, deprival and oppressions they have committed against Muslim and poor countries of the world," Bukhari said.
"If it is not done, the issue of terrorism can never be solved and the whole world would be burnt in the fire of violence and turmoil," he said.
"The world knows that the life of a Muslim lies in having belief in God and he cannot be terrorized by any earthly power," Bukhari concluded.
With about 125 million Muslims, India has the world's second-largest Islamic population after Indonesia.
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