In each of the dozen major bomb blasts that have taken place in India over the past three years, the name of one organization has cropped up with unerring constancy. Indian police and investigative agencies explored possible links of the banned Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) after each terrorist blast, but achieved a breakthrough only after 27 serial bombs ripped through western Gujarat state's principal city Ahmedabad on July 28 killing 56 people. The Gujarat state police announced on Saturday that it had arrested nine people - most of them were SIMI activists - and the suspected 'mastermind' behind the blasts. The SIMI, a Muslim fundamentalist organization, was founded in 1977 in Aligarh town of Uttar Pradesh, known for its famous Muslim university. Mohammad Ahmadullah, who currently holds an academic position in the United States, founded the SIMI 'to educate and enlighten Muslim youth in India.' In a recent interview with website rediff.com, he states he no longer has any links with the SIMI as it has been hijacked by radical elements.
The SIMI, in its publications, lists as its objectives, the propagation of Islam and jihad for the cause of Islam. The organization saw rapid growth in the 1980s and 1990s with units established in several states spread as far as Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Kerala in the south, Maharashtra and Gujarat in the west, central Madhya Pradesh and eastern West Bengal and Assam. SIMI activists believe in a pan-Islamic state, a Muslim ummah, and have said they want to convert India into an Islamic land. SIMI literature and pamphlets have referred to al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and Taliban leader Mullah Omar as the true believers or mujahid who have taken up jihad or holy war for the ummah. Omar, particularly, is a role model for many SIMI leaders. It is believed that SIMI gets substantial funds from international organizations for Muslim youth based in the Middle East.
The Indian government banned the SIMI in 2001 on the grounds that it was inciting communal violence. But intelligence officials say the organization simply went underground, regrouped its core membership and continued to draw new recruits. It currently operates through various front organizations such as religious study groups, research centres and non-profit organizations, they said. According to the police the SIMI has a core membership of at least 400 full-time cadres and 200,000 members. It is believed the SIMI's ranks swelled substantially after the Hindu-Muslim riots in Gujarat in 2002 in which more than 1,500 people, most of them Muslims, were killed.
The police have been tailing SIMI activists over the years and several have been arrested. SIMI chief Safdar Nagori was picked up as recently as March 2008 by the police in Madhya Pradesh along with 12 other activists. He is in jail and has been charged with sedition and inciting communal trouble. Nagori is believed to have been instrumental in setting up sleeper cells of activists and organizing camps where members were trained in using guns, guerrilla warfare, jungle survival, withstanding interrogation and raising legal issues about their rights if arrested. Both Kerala and Madhya Pradesh police have reported that such camps were held in forest areas in their states.
Police say the SIMI has links with Islamic terror groups based in Pakistan and in Bangladesh. They are also believed to have links with Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), but the police has not yet been able to establish any direct link in connection with the recent Gujarat blasts. The SIMI and Pakistan-based Islamic terror groups have been named by the Indian police in connection with every major bomb attack in India over the past three years, including the serial bomb blasts on Mumbai's rail network in 2006, which killed 187 people.