SIMI cries foul, denies Abu Jundal connection

Members of the banned organization Students Islamic Movement of India, better known as SIMI, have said that the intelligence agencies should not connect Abu Jundal with SIMI unless they have the evidence to corroborate such claims. According to the agencies, Abu Jundal, who is believed to be the highest Indian recruit in the Lashkar- E- Taiba, and a key accused in the 26/ 11 Mumbai attacks, was inducted in SIMI after the Ghodhra riots of 2002. The SIMI stint, agencies have been maintaining, was Jundal’s first brush with jihadi ideology. [caption id=“attachment_360302” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“Simi has said that it has no connection to Jundal: screengrab from CNN IBN”]  [/caption]“It is very easy for the police to mention a SIMI connection with all such arrests as the organization is banned and none can counter the claim of the police,” said Dr Shahid Badr Falahi, who was SIMI president at the time of its ban in September 2001. Entry level members in SIMI were known as ‘ikhwaan’. After spending four years with the organization, one was designated as ‘Ansar’. SIMI membership was open only for those below 30 years of age. “Suppose if someone joins the organization at entry level and leaves it on a month or two, how can you blame SIMI for something done by that person 10 years later? This is nothing but maligning the organization’s name,” said Badr. Under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA), the ministry of home affairs notifies a fresh ban on SIMI every two years. A special tribunal headed by a sitting High Court judge examines the notification and passes an order on the matter. All the bans have been contested by erstwhile members of SIMI. The current ban, imposed on February 12, 2010, is the sixth on SIMI. The government’s stand in the matter is that despite the ban, SIMI has been running its operations in a clandestine manner. During the third SIMI tribunal in 2006, The Maharshtra ATS mentioned Syed Zabiuddin Ansari as a SIMI member who was involved in the Aurangabad arms haul case. “At the time of the ban, police seized all the records of SIMI. At present, we cannot verify the names of members of the organization at that time except those who held important positions. Zabiuddin was not one of them,” said Humam Ahmed Siddiqui, former SIMI president of Uttar Pradesh zone and one of the petitioners who has challenged the ban on SIMI.