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India
Arrests 123 Muslim Activists For 'Minority Education' Seminar
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| SIMI
president, Shahid Badr, arrested by Indian police |
Report BY Zafarul-Islam
Khan
SURAT,
India, Jan. 4 (IslamOnline) - A total of 123 Islamic activists, many belonging
to the banned Student’s Islamic Movement of India (SIMI), have been arrested
in the mid-western Indian city of Surat.
According
to news reports releast Friday, 4 Jan., they had gathered there for a three-day seminar on ‘minority
education’. The detainees include some prominent leaders of the Muslim
community, who are in no way related to SIMI.
This
was the first massive arrest of SIMI cadres after the organization was banned
September 27, 2001, in an apparent manipulation of the international fight
against 'terrorism'.
Indian
Home Minister, L.K. Advani, a known hard-liner, and many ultra nationalist
leaders had been urging the organization’s ban for quite some time.
Major
Muslim organizations in the country decried the ban in categorical terms and
called the central government’s move politically motivated since there was no
solid evidence of the organization’s involvement in terrorist activities.
Only
its slogans and rhetoric have been found objectionable while outfits belonging
to the ultra rightist stream now ruling India, like Bajrang Dal, are prima facie
guilty of violence against Muslims and Christians.
The
official argument for banning the organization seems laughable. "Since
inception, SIMI has consistently adopted a hard-line militant posture on various
issues of concern to the Muslim community," said the statement.
"According to its Constitution, SIMI seeks Allah’s pleasure through
reconstruction of human life in accordance with the principle given by Allah and
His messenger stating that 'the Holy Qur’an and Sunnah would guide the
organization in all matters'".
If
this argument is really the basis for banning any organization, then all Muslim
organizations in the country will be banned and every Muslim will be termed as
“anti-national”.
One
of the charges in the official notification banning SIMI is that “it is
working for an international Islamic order.”
Every
Muslim is and should strive for achieving this fundamental goal. Followers of
every religion, be it Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism or even Communism, claim
to be working for a just international Hindu, Christian, Jewish, Communist or
Muslim order.
The
Indian constitution does not say that this aim is any ground for banning an
organization.
Another
charge that has been leveled against SIMI is that it has been demonstrating
against the burning of the Holy Qur’an all over the country.
Instead
of arresting the people responsible for the sacrilege, the government has tried
to nab protesters demanding justice. This could happen only in India under the
BJP rule.
The
arrested youths come from 10 Indian states. The largest number, 44, were from
Maharashtra followed by Gujarat: 25, Madhya Pradesh: 13, Karnataka: 11, Uttar
Pradesh: 10, Rajasthan: 9, West Bengal: 4, Tamil Nadu: 4, Bihar: 2 and
Chattisgarh: 1. All of them have been remanded to police custody.
Police
said “the gathering was well-planned. Details of the conference had been
circulated throughout the country.”
According
to news reports, police have found no links of the organization with the recent
attacks on Parliament. Though press reports say that documents seized in the
conference venue indicate that SIMI allegedly had some connections with
terrorist groups like Al-Qaeda, the Muslim community in India does not consider
these allegations true.
These
reports are based on seized handbills and pamphlets eulogizing Osama bin Laden.
“We intend to explore every aspect of this organization, their purpose of
hosting the meeting here and their possible links with agencies like the
Pakistani military intelligence, ISI, and their future plans,” Surat police
commissioner, VK Gupta, told reporters.
On
the alleged link between SIMI and Al-Qaeda, he said that it is not clear if SIMI
is connected to the Al-Qaeda.
News
reports claim that police was suspicious when a hall was booked in Surat for a
religious purpose by a former SIMI office-bearer, Sajid Ghulam Khwaja Mansoori.
Neither
the agenda of the meeting nor the names of the conference hosts were mentioned.
The organization later shosted a national conference under the banner of “All
India Minority Education Board” with a Delhi address.
But
the Delhi Police found that there was no such organization registered in Okhla.
“The agenda was handwritten as if it had been prepared in a hurry," the
police commissioner told reporters. "It does not happen when a conference
on an important issue like minority education is being held. This looked like an
attempt to cover up.”
All
the 123 activists have been arrested under Unlawful Activities Prevention Act.
According
to some reports, SIMI has been operating under the banner of Tahreek
Ihya-e-Ummat (TAU) since its ban. There are also reports of seizure of hundreds
of membership forms of TAU from the conference venue.
Meanwhile,
there are reports of the release of a large number of SIMI cadres arrested in
the wake of the ban two months earlier. Most of them have been released on bail
on furnishing personal bonds. More than 500 SIMI activists were reportedly
arrested all over the country following the ban.
There
has been contradictory reports regarding SIMI's involvement in anti-national
activities. Though SIMI was alleged to have been involved in last year's Kanpur
communal riots, the denial of the police Inspector General of its involvement in
the riots should have cleared the air.
On
its alleged relations with Kashmiri organizations, the government has not
presented any case yet. Senior police officials in the troubled state have,
meanwhile, said that there is no proof of SIMI's relations with any organization
in the Kashmir Valley.
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