The when, where, why, what of SIMI

What is the Students' Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) that the Home Ministry says internally, is the facilitator of the Mumbai bomb blasts?

In the 1980s, though intelligence agencies missed the development, a small group of Indian Muslim youth from outside Jammu and Kashmir headed by one Bashir, a Keralite, clandestinely went to Pakistan and met Qazi Hussain Ahmed and other leaders of the Jamaat-e-Islami (JEI).

Bashir introduced himself as belonging to an organisation that supported militant Islam but added that he was not from Kashmir.

These young men were trained in a camp organised by the JEI and their instructor was a Sudanese, who gave his name as Salauddin. During their discussions, the ISI and the JEI urged the SIMI to operate jointly with the terrorist organisations of J&K and the terrorists of Punjab.

This visit "" and in fact, SIMI itself "" came out for the first time during an interrogation of a member of the SIMI belonging to Uttar Pradesh, who was arrested in connection with some explosions in trains organised by the SIMI after the demolition of Babri Masjid in 1992.

In 1999, SIMI forged links with the Lashkar-e-Toiba and a representative of Lashkar attended the SIMI convention in Aurangabad.

In southern India, for instance, SIMI activists set up the National Democratic Front in Kerala, and the Islamic Youth Center and the Tamil Nadu Muslim Munnetra Kazhagam in Tamil Nadu. Several of the LeT operatives arrested in Aurangabad were SIMI activists earlier.

SIMI is an attractive local partner for organizations such as the LeT as it has an all-India presence, with strong bases in the states of UP, Delhi, MP, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Kerala and Assam.

According to intelligence sources, SIMI by itself does not have explosives and other expertise. It helps in providing logistics.