Author: Vicky Nanjappa
Publication: Rediff.com
Date: August 21, 2008
URL: http://in.rediff.com/news/2008/aug/22ahd.htm
From a moderate start to a dreaded terror
outfit, the Students Islamic Movement of India has come a long way.
Though the theories attached to the shift
in stance by SIMI are relatively old, Safdar Nagori, the most prominent face
of the banned outfit, said in his confession statement before the Madhya Pradesh
police that SIMI had decided to intensify operations in India in 2001 after
it had been banned by the then National Democratic Alliance government.
Nagori in his confession statement admitted
that he and his men had undertaken a massive recruitment drive.
In the process, they recruited several youth
to the outfit following which training was imparted to each of them. He said
that the idea was to transform SIMI into a militant outfit.
The confession is very much on the lines of
the interview given by Nagori prior to the outfit's ban.
In the interview, he said it is not when an
individual is harmed, but when an entire community finds itself collectively
persecuted that the cry for jihad is given.
If nothing works then one is forced to revolt,
take to arms.
Nagori said that he was an extremist and not
a fundamentalist and his actions were never on the basis of religion.
"I was pained and angered by the atrocities
against Muslims worldwide and the turning point was the demolition of the
Babri Masjid and the Gujarat riots only made matters worse," he said.
Giving details about the training programme,
Nagori said that nearly 25,000 SIMI activists met in Mumbai in 2001 and this
was the first time that the call for jihad was given.
The meeting also hailed Al Qaeda chief Osama
bin Laden as a true warrior. Prior to Nagori's arrest, there were 400 active
SIMI members known as the Ansars and 20,000 Ikhwans who were ordinary members.
The training programme for SIMI began in Jammu
and Kashmir. They trained along with the Hizbul Mujahideen. Following this,
the selected cadres were assigned to major terror operations in the country.
Further, he also gave information regarding
a training camp in Choral, Madhya Pradesh. He confessed that the training
camp in Choral was unique and was used to train different classes of militants
for different kinds of operations.
Nagori also spoke at length about the manner
in which the SIMI split into two groups, thanks to differences of opinion.
He said during his interrogation that the main reason for the split was due
to ideological differences between his faction and the Misba-ul-Islam faction.
While the Islam faction wanted the SIMI to
have a more moderate approach, Nagori pressed for a more aggressive view.
Nagori made the same claim during his narco-analysis which was conducted in
Bengaluru recently.
He said that SIMI did give it a try to sort
out the differences and they met at Ujjain. Nagori found that he had a majority
of the members supporting him. This is when he decided to breakaway and carry
forward the outfit with his ideology.
Nagori also spoke about his idea of recruiting
more educated youth into the outfit. He said that persons from an IT background
were preferred and in this regard a technical cell was also started. He said
the idea of recruiting persons from an IT background was because these persons
could remain low key and they were excellent planners.
Nagori also mentioned about the Shaheen Force,
an all-woman wing of SIMI. He explained during his confession and narco-analysis
that women could convince their children easily to take the SIMI route and
hence he had decided to float this wing.
He felt that women could help boost the membership
of SIMI.