While security agencies across the country are grappling with the suspected role of SIMI in terror attacks, the Maharashtra Police has another charge against the outlawed organisation. The police alleged that it is trying to sabotage the polio immunisation programme, particularly in the communally sensitive Malegaon, which has been targeted by bomb attacks.
In an affidavit filed in July with the Unlawful Activities Prevention Appellate Tribunal justifying continuation of the ban on SIMI, the Nashik (Rural) police has claimed that SIMI was using smaller Islamic organisations and sects to derail the polio programme by citing the involvement of WHO, a “foreign element”.
“SIMI, under the banner ‘Ummat Tehreeq’, had launched a strong campaign to discourage Muslims from responding to the programme launched in 1995,” said the affidavit, a copy of which was obtained by The Indian Express. According to the affidavit, Ummat Tehreeq is mostly active in and around Malegaon and Muslim-dominated pockets in the Marathwada region and Bhiwandi in Thane district.
“Ummat Tehreeq, an organisation which is led by ex-SIMI activists, operates in Muslim-dominated areas, propagating false messages of the polio dose being a dreadful way to cause impotency,” the affidavit says and adds that a door-to-door campaign was launched by it from the time SIMI was banned in 2001. The affidavit claims SIMI activists went around convincing Muslims in these areas to not “fall prey” to the monthly immunisation programme.
Prakash Doke, Maharashtra’s Director of Health Services, admits that they were facing problems carrying on the programme in Muslim-majority areas. “Earlier, there were areas like Bhiwandi and Malegaon in the state which reported huge refusals. But slowly it has spread to other areas with a high minority population,” he said.
... contd.
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