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New Delhi: The Supreme Court yesterday extended the ban on the alleged terror outfit Students Islamic Movement of India (Simi) by another six weeks.
A bench comprising Chief Justice K.G. Balakrishnan and Justice P. Sathasivam has directed Simi to file its response within four weeks while fixing September 24 as the next date for hearing.
The Simi was allegedly behind the recent serial blast in Ahmedabad which claimed more than 50 lives.
The court decision to extend the ban on Simi was taken following an appeal filed by the federal Home Ministry against the August 5 Delhi High Court order lifting ban on the organisation on the ground that the government had failed to produce any fresh evidence against the organisation's involvement in terrorist and anti-national activities.
Earlier the Supreme Court had stayed the High Court order on August 6.
The Government of India had extended the ban on Simi by two years on February 7 this year. Simi was first banned under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967, in September 2001.
Different name
Allegedly, Simi had been operating in the country under a different name, Indian Mujahideen, which had claimed responsibility for July 26 serial blasts in Ahmedabad.
Simi was founded in April 1977 at Aligarh in Uttar Pradesh by Mohammad Ahmadullah Siddiqi with the mission of liberating India from western cultural influence and functioned as the students wing of Jamaat-e-Islami Hind.
However, subsequently, it emerged as a jihadi organisation and has often been accused by authorities for being responsible for terrorist attacks in various parts of the country.
Simi president Shahid Badar Falah and its general secretary Safdar Nagori are currently in prison while Abul Bashar Qasmi, who had taken over control of the organisation, was arrested from Azamgarh district of Uttar Pradesh on August 16 for masterminding the Ahmedabad blasts.
Appearing on behalf of the federal Home Ministry, Additional Solicitor General Gopal Subramanium informed the court that nine fresh cases had been registered against Simi activists since the ban on the organisation was extended in February. He further informed the court that currently around 1,900 Simi activists are lodged in prisons in 89 cases.
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