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Indian Police Kill Five Muslim Protesters, Outlaw Islamic Student Group
LUCKNOW, India, Sept 27 (News Agencies) - Five Muslims were killed Thursday after police fired on demonstrators protesting the arrest of leaders of a banned Islamic student organization in this northern Indian city.
The violence erupted after police sealed off the offices of the Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) and came hours after New Delhi imposed a nationwide ban on the Muslim group.
A Lucknow city police spokesman said that five people had been killed and added that an indefinite curfew had been imposed in parts of the city after police put down protests over the arrest of three local SIMI leaders.
Thousands of people poured out on the streets and clashed with police immediately after the leaders were detained earlier Thursday.
"It was becoming very difficult to control the crowd and so the police had to open fire," said Lucknow's deputy police chief A.K. Mitra.
Police said protesters had hurled bricks and forced shops to close, prompting police to open fire with rifles at followers of the group.
Two others were injured in the firing in Lucknow, the provincial capital of Uttar Pradesh state and home to a vast chunk of India's 120 million Muslims.
Hundreds of personnel from the Rapid Action Force paramilitary force were deployed in Lucknow as police were issued with shoot-on-sight orders, officials 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 Mujahideen 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 on the behest of Hizbul Mujahedeen.
The SIMI, founded in 1977 to usher in an "Islamic revolution" in India, has denied any links with Kashmiri Muslim groups.
Home Minister L.K. Advani warned of "firm action" against SIMI, which he claimed was behind the bombings.
Top home ministry officials said similar raids were conducted against SIMI establishments in 16 of India's 27 states.
"Scores of activists of SIMI were arrested today following the raids in different parts of the country," said the ministry's Kamal Pande.
He, however, declined to give the number of those detained in the nationwide crackdown on the Islamic forum.
The Indian government estimates that SIMI has some 20,000 dedicated members and hundreds of thousands of sympathizers.
Official sources said that some of SIMI followers were also plotting to bomb a passenger train in the western state of Maharashtra.
They also said police were also looking for SIMI's chief, Shahid Badr, who is wanted for sedition and other criminal charges.
Badr has attacked India for its offer of support to the United States' war against terrorism, they said, adding the Islamic leader recently hailed Saudi dissident Osama bin Laden, the United States' prime suspect for the September 11th terror attacks in New York and Washington, as a "champion and true savior of Islam".
News agencies quoted Irshad Khan, president of SIMI in the western state of Maharashtra, as saying that, "The organization can be banned, but there can be no ban on our ideology. We will not shut down. Let the police come and arrest us. We will continue our work in jails."
"Every Muslim is like a brother to us," he said, "whether it be Osama bin Laden, whether it be [Pakistani President] Pervez Musharraf or any other Muslim. But our ideal is ... the prophet [SAW] and nobody else can take his place.''
The organization has condemned the September 11th attacks, news agencies reported.
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