Six convicts among the 31 members of the Students’ Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) have been imprisoned for over a decade. The six have been on hunger strike for the last month in protest against “inhuman and barbaric” treatment meted out to them by jail authorities, while 25 SIMI members complain that they have more often been forced to chant praise of Hindu deity Ram, in order to get food. The inmates also accounted that the cops desecrated the Holy Quran before them.
The SIMI is a banned organisation that was formed in Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh, in April 1977. SIMI maintains that concepts of secularism, democracy and nationalism, keystones of the Indian Constitution, are antithetical to Islam. They aim to restore the supremacy of Islam through the resurrection of the Caliphate.
Dr Abu Faisal, Qamruddin, Kamran, Saduli PA and Shibily, who have been on hunger strike in the Bhopal Central Jail since last month, are surviving on saline water now. In October 2020, they did the same before being admitted to the hospital following the deterioration of their health.
Family members of the accused have been complaining about all sorts of harassment – mental, physical – inside the jail.
The relatives of the accused have written a letter to several Muslim organizations, addressing issues faced by the imprisoned members, including misbehaving and abuse, threatening, religious abusing including desecration of Holy Quran, caging in solitary confinement for 23 hours continuously, slapping false jail cases, no treatment of sick- old medicine being served,
The investigation of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) had confirmed the complaints of abuses and harassment. The NHRC report said that prisoners are being brutally beaten up by jail staff. Several prisoners had injury marks which the staff could not explain.
The Indian government describes SIMI as a terrorist organisation and banned it in 2001, shortly after the 9/11 attack. The ban was lifted in August 2008 by a special tribunal but was reinstated on 6 August 2008 on national security grounds. In February 2019, the ban on SIMI was extended for a period of five more years starting February 1, 2019, under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA).
