Nashik police add a charge against SIMI: it’s blocking polio campaign

“SIMI, under the banner ‘Ummat Tehreeq’, had launched a strong campaign to discourage Muslims from responding to the programme launched in 1995,” said the affidavit, a copy of which was obtained by The Indian Express. According to the affidavit, Ummat Tehreeq is mostly active in and around Malegaon and Muslim-dominated pockets in the Marathwada region and Bhiwandi in Thane district.

“Ummat Tehreeq, an organisation which is led by ex-SIMI activists, operates in Muslim-dominated areas, propagating false messages of the polio dose being a dreadful way to cause impotency,” the affidavit says and adds that a door-to-door campaign was launched by it from the time SIMI was banned in 2001. The affidavit claims SIMI activists went around convincing Muslims in these areas to not “fall prey” to the monthly immunisation programme.

Prakash Doke, Maharashtra’s Director of Health Services, admits that they were facing problems carrying on the programme in Muslim-majority areas. “Earlier, there were areas like Bhiwandi and Malegaon in the state which reported huge refusals. But slowly it has spread to other areas with a high minority population,” he said.

While the polio campaign faced a similar problem earlier from radical Muslim groups in some parts of Uttar Pradesh — the state with the highest number of polio cases — it has since sought to counter it by roping in community elders and clerics.

The affidavit, however, does not elaborate on specific instances. Superintendent of Police, Nashik (Rural), Nikhil Gupta, said he was not aware of the matter and needed to look up the affidavit. Maharashtra DGP A N Roy also said he was unaware of such claims being made by the Nashik (Rural) police.

Hakim Mohammad Ahmed Khan, general secretary of the All India Ulema Council, said they had already taken measures to tackle the anti-polio campaign. “A sect called ‘Ummat’ has been known to spread falsehoods that the polio dosage causes impotence. Though the problem was much worse in the beginning, religious leaders have tried to contain it in the past few years,” he said.

Maharashtra witnessed a polio outbreak in 2006, with the first case being reported after a gap of two years.

with inputs from Swatee Kher