By IRNA,
New Delhi : Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief, Lalu Prasad Yadav and Samajwadi Party (SP) chief, Mulayam Singh Yadav Wednesday hailed lifting of ban on Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) by a special tribunal.
Welcoming the tribunal’s verdict, Lalu Yadav, who is the Union Railway Minister in Congress-led UPA government said Wednesday, “I have been saying that there should have been no ban on SIMI. And if at all SIMI has to be banned, then why not Shiv Sena and Durga Vahini.” Toeing the line of Union Railway Minister, Mulayam Singh Yadav, the former Uttar Pradesh chief minister said that when the SP was in power in Uttar Pradesh, it had not imposed any ban on SIMI. “If SIMI is banned, then RSS (Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh) a Hindu fanatic organization should also be”.
The specially-designated tribunal headed by Justice Geeta Mittal of the Delhi High Court said in its order that there was no fresh evidence to justify extension of the ban first imposed in 2001.
The Student Islamic Movement of India (SIMI), was formed at Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh, in 1977. Mohammad Ahmadullah Siddiqi, now a professor of journalism and public relations at Western Illinois University, Macomb, USA, was its founding president.
Indian authorities (federal and several state governments) frequently charge that SIMI is involved in terrorist activities.
SIMI has been accused of carrying out bombing campaigns across India resulting in loss of lives.
SIMI was first banned on September 27, 2001 immediately after the bombing of twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York, USA on September 11, 2001.