Author: Sanjay Singh/ New Delhi
Publication: The Pioneer
Date: December 4, 2003
The Students' Islamic Movement of
India, or SIMI, is a banned outfit in India. But across the eastern border
in Bangladesh, its activists are pampered guests - the hosts are facilitating
their training in subversion and interaction as well, with the leaders
of the Pakistan-based Azad Kashmir Front and the Al-Naseeran. And all this,
to de-stabilise Assam, West Bengal and other parts of India, a recent classified
Intelligence report said.
It's not just about giving shelter
to the ULFA and other extremist groups operating in the north-eastern region
on Bangladeshi soil.
That's old hat. It's about much
more. Along with the SIMI activists, fundamentalists, including the Jamaat-e-Islami
of Bangladesh (JEI-BD), an alliance partner in the present Khaleda Zia
Government, are actively providing logistical and ideological support to
the MULTA (Muslim United Liberation Tigers of Assam).
The mission of the nexus is to facilitate
regular underground meetings on either side of the border, sending trained
MULTA and SIMI cadres to spot potential recruits in Assam for subversive
training across the border and also forging ties with other Islamic groups
in South and South-East Asia, the report, to which The Pioneer gained access,
said.
The SIMI recently held two meetings
in West Bengal, which were also attended by the Islamic Chhatra Shibir
(ICS, the students' wing of the JEI).
The first meeting was held at 39/Madrassa,
in Malda, under the banner of Islamic Action Force, on August 27.
The second one was from August 31
to September 1, this time in the garb of Islamic Siksha Shivir at a madrassa
in Mograhat in the North 24 Parganas, West Bengal. In these meetings, the
fundamentalists stressed on a plan to infiltrate madrassas, Muslim clubs,
libraries, and other cultural bodies for covert mobilisation of Islamic
forces.
The report mentioned that the ICS
was mobilising the SIMI activists in Bangladesh.
In August, one Jamaluddin Chaudhory
of the outfit had taken seven SIMI activists from Assam and West
Bengal to renowned residential
madrassas in Chittagong, Rangpur and Dhaka for higher Islamic studies.
The trained SIMI and MULTA cadres
have been asked to spot new recruits for sending them to Bangladesh for
arms training, the report said. Intelligence agencies have also found that
some hard core SIMI activists from Malda and South 24 Parganas had crossed
over to Bangladesh for higher studies in Islamic theology at a Saudi- funded
private institution in Chittagong.
The real purpose, however, was to
organise militancy in Assam, West Bengal and other parts of the country.
A meeting was earlier held on July 9-10 in Chittagong where representatives
of the Hijbul Mujahideen, the JKLF, the SIMI, the MULTA, the Azad Kashmir
Front, the Lashkar-e-Toiba and the Al Nasseran from Pakistan were present.
While the meeting discussed strategies for establishing nexus rules and
targeting anti-Islamic forces, several moves against India were discussed,
too. Taj Mohammad alias Mastan of the Pakistan-based the HuM had coordinated
the meeting.
The security and Intelligence officials
have expressed concern to top officials over the rate at which the SIMI
activists from West Bengal were sneaking into Bangladesh and participating
in various meetings organised by radical Islamic forces. The report said
they also received huge funds from frontal organisations of several terrorist
groups aimed at reviving the SIMI movement in India.
