THE OUTFIT
SIMI was set up on April 25, 1977, by a group of Muslim students under the guidance of the Jamaat-e-Islami Hind. It comprised of students from UP, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Bihar and Rajasthan and was a consolidation of various student groups.
In the first 10 years of its existence, senior leaders from the Jamaat-e-Islami were the presidents of SIMI. Gradually, the group moved from being an organisation for Muslim students to a radical Islamic organisation resulting in the severance of ties with the JEI. Propagation of an Islamic Khilafat became the group’s core objective.
SIMI was at the forefront of protests over the Shahbano case in 1985.
Following the demolition of the Babri Masjid in 1992, it began expanding its influence over young Muslims and began establishing ties with extremist groups in Pakistan.
THE BAN
SIMI was banned first on September 27, 2001, in the wake of the 9/11 attacks in the United States. The ban has been extended thrice subsequently. The most recent ban came on February 8, 2008, but on August 5, 2008, a specially constituted tribunal under Section 4 of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967, lifted the ban on SIMI. The tribunal, headed by a Delhi high court judge, Justice Gita Mittal, was required to examine a Central government notification dated February 7, 2008, for banning the outfit. But the tribunal said there was insufficient cause for declaring the association unlawful. The Centre then rushed to the Supreme Court, which acceded to its plea and stayed the tribunal’s order till further orders. To bolster their case, that is coming up for hearing on August 25, the government has already filed extensive “additional information” just a few days ago.
OLD GROUP, NEW NAMES
Following the ban, SIMI has emerged under different names in states where it has always had a strong presence—UP, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu—and also in Karnataka and Jharkhand where it made its presence felt more recently.
In many parts of the country, SIMI has dropped the ‘I’, and is calling itself only SIM. In Kerala, SIMI is believed to operate under 12 new fronts. Organisations like the National Democratic Front, for instance, are often described in security circles as new SIMI fronts in Kerala. In Tamil Nadu, the Manitha Neethi Pasarai (MNP) is sometimes identified as a new SIMI offshoot.

... contd.