The bans have not been “effective”, admits the ministry, “It (SIMI) has supporters in the Gulf countries. It has contacts in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, Bangladesh and Nepal. Pakistan-based Hizb-ul-Mujahideen and Lashkar-e-Toiba have successfully penetrated into SIMI cadres.”

The ministry quotes information by intelligence agencies of “pan-Islamic linkages of ex-SIMI activists with the LTTE cadres in carrying out militant activities in the country” during the years of ban.

“Its members being students and youths, SIMI is easily influenced by hardcore Muslim terror organisations operating within the country and abroad,” describes the ministry. To counter this Badar's version is that SIMI no longer exists. “It is for this reason that there is no office-bearer or member who could represent the organisation (in the litigation) and I have appeared in the present proceedings on the basis of having been the past president,” he says.