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Bangladesh

Top Jamaat, IOJ leaders may skip road march

2011-10-09

[Bangla Daily Star] The top leaders of Jamaat-e-Islami and Islami Oikkya Jote are unlikely to take part in tomorrow's road march to Sylhet to avoid "government harassment", sources in the parties said. Instead, the two components of BNP-led four-party alliance have directed their mid-level and grassroots leaders to join the programme. Meanwhile, ...back at the wine tasting, Vince was about to start tasting his third quart... the main opposition BNP is getting ready to ensure the maximum presence of its leaders, activists and supporters in the road march to be led by its chief Khaleda Zia Three-term PM of Bangla, widow of deceased dictator Ziaur Rahman, head of the Bangla Nationalist Party, an apparent magnet for corruption ... The leader of the opposition in the House, Khaleda will address six street rallies on her way to Sylhet, BNP's Joint Secretary General Ruhul Kabir Rizvi told journalists at the party's Naya Paltan office yesterday. At the September 27 rally of the alliance, the BNP chairperson announced a set of agitation programmes, including road marches towards Sylhet, Rajshahi and Chittagong, to drum up support for its movement for reinstatement of the caretaker government system. BNP Standing Committee Member Khandakar Mosharraf Hossain, coordinator of the Dhaka-Sylhet road march committee, earlier told The Daily Star steps have been taken to make the programme a success. He hoped it will intensify their ongoing anti-government movement. BNP has discussed the event with some like-minded smaller parties apart from its allies -- Jamaat, IOJ and Bangladesh Jatiya Party. Asked about participation of top leaders, Motiur Rahman Akand, assistant publicity secretary of Jamaat, said they were yet to decide which of their upper-tier leaders will join the march. "We will decide on the matter later." Admitting that the party is in trouble now, the Jamaat leader said "We have however directed our leaders in Sylhet and other areas connecting the route of the march to participate in the programme." IOJ spokesperson Abdullah Wasel claimed its chief Fazlul Haq Amini will not be able to join the road march as the government has "confined" Amini to his Lalbagh residence. "But we hope that rest of our top-level leaders, including the secretary general, will participate," he said. Asked whether he himself will attend it, Wasel replied in the negative. "But we have asked our local units to ensure huge turnouts in the rallies." However, it's easy to be generous with someone else's money... insiders of the parties say fear of police action and arrest is keeping their leaders off the march. Under pressure from law enforcement agencies, IOJ has apparently stopped its political activities after its activists went on the rampage in the capital and elsewhere during its April 4 hartal ... a peculiarly Bangla combination of a general strike and a riot, used by both major political groups in lieu of actual governance ... demanding cancellation of national women policy. The party, however, on September 28 announced fresh three-month agitations demanding cancellation of women and education policies. Jamaat is passing through a tough time after arrest of its top five leaders, who are now behind bars on war crimes charges. Police locked away several top leaders of Jamaat after its activists torched a number of vehicles, including a prison van and a police jeep, during a clash with law enforcers at the city's Kakrail on September 18. The party's agitation on streets apparently came to a halt after police crackdown.

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Bangladesh

Now Amini calls 48-hr hartal

2011-07-05

Islami Ain Bastobayon Committee yesterday called a 48-hour countrywide hartal ... a peculiarly Bangla combination of a general strike and a riot, used by both major political groups in lieu of actual governance ... starting tomorrow to protest the removal of phrases "Absolute Faith and Trust in Allah" from the constitution. Fazlul Haq Amini, ameer of the committee, announced the programme at a presser at his Lalbagh office in the city. He demanded scrapping of all secular and anti-Islamic provisions from the constitution. Amini, chairman of an Islami Oikya Jote ... a political party in Bangladesh. In the 2001 elections the party won 2 out of 300 elected members in an alliance with the Bangladesh Nationalist Party. It has a focus on building an islamic state, and has used the madrassas to gain support... faction, also announced a rally in Dhaka for July 14. "The country is heading towards non-stop hartal due to the government's anti-Islamic activities," he said. Earlier on Sunday, BNP and Jamaat-e-Islami announced a 48-hour countrywide hartal from tomorrow. Amini's IOJ is part of the BNP-led four-party alliance

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Bangladesh

Jamaat to play safe

2011-05-21

[Bangla Daily Star] Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami ... a Pakistani catspaw remaining active in Bangla politix, loosely affiliated with the Pak religious party of the same name and closely affiliated with most of the terror organizations in Bangla. A member of the BNP's four party governing coalition.... is following the strategy of not involving itself in anti-government movement right now to avoid further arrest of its leaders and disaster in the party. Instead, it is encouraging other Islamist parties, including Fazlul Haq Amini-led Islami Oikya Jote ... a political party in Bangladesh. In the 2001 elections the party won 2 out of 300 elected members in an alliance with the Bangladesh Nationalist Party. It has a focus on building an islamic state, and has used the madrassas to gain support... (IOJ), and like-minded Islamic leaders to launch an anti-government movement. Jamaat leaders especially those who are not well known and holding no posts in the party's top or mid-level are involved in waging anti-government movement under the banner of different Islamic and olama-mashaek organisations. Talking to The Daily Star, a top IOJ leader admitted that several Jamaat leaders are giving them full support for the movement, especially on the women development policy issue. He, however, declined to elaborate further in this regard. "I will say no more!" Since its inception in 1979, Jamaat-e-Islami has never undergone such a disaster as it happened after the arrests of its top leaders, including the party's Ameer Motiur Rahman Nizami and Secretary General Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mojaheed, on charge of crime against humanity, said party leaders. A number of Jamaat leaders said they would follow the go-slow policy for one or two more years before waging any movement against the government. Thereby admitting that they aren't very strong right now... "We will toughen our movement by the last or second-last years of the government's tenure as this is the trend of our country's politics," said ATM Azharul Islam, acting secretary general of Jamaat, adding, "We are not sitting idle as we are observing programmes to press home the demand for releasing our placed in durance vile leaders. A number of Jamaat leaders echoed Azharul saying that fearing another blow from the government and considering the party's organising strength they are likely to wait another year or two before going tough on the government. Meanwhile, ...back at the the conspirators' cleverly concealed hideout the long-awaited message arrived. They quickly got to work with their decoder rings... they would focus on reviving the party's image. Such as it is... Jamaat's recent anti-government activities are evolving around issuing of statements, discussions and small scale rallies, most of which are organised in front of the its party office and auditorium. The better to run like rats when the RAB shows up... The party's top and mid-level leaders were not seen active in the streets during the last three hartal ... a peculiarly Bangla combination of a general strike and a riot, used by both major political groups in lieu of actual governance ... s on June 27 and November 30 in 2010 and April 4 this year called by its alliance partners BNP and IOJ. Instead, they issued releases supporting the hartals and criticised the government for "evicting" Khaleda Zia Three-term PM of Bangla, widow of deceased dictator Ziaur Rahman, head of the Bangla Nationalist Party, an apparent magnet for corruption ... from cantonment house, its failure in controlling price hike of essentials and formulating "anti-Islam" women development policy. Meanwhile, ...back at the pie fight, Bella opened her mouth at precisely the wrong moment... BNP is avoiding its ally Jamaat and following go-alone policy in waging anti-government movement due to the debacle in the Islamist party and arrest of its top leaders.

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Bangladesh

One dead in Bangla riot against woman's rights

2011-04-03

One person was killed in southwest Bangladesh as police fired on a mob of madrassa students protesting government steps to ensure equal property rights for women. The riots occurred in Jessore, 160 miles from the capital Dhaka, after some 500 protesters, mostly madrassa students, suddenly launched attacks against officers with sticks and stones. Witnesses reported that officers fired live bullets on the protesters after they fought with police. "We shot rubber bullets to disperse the unruly protesters. It appears that a madrassa student has died in the violence. But we are not sure whether he died of police firing," said Jessore police chief, Kamrul Ahsan. At least dozen others including six police officers were also wounded , said Ahsan, adding three officers were in serious condition after being hit with bamboo sticks. Islamic groups led by firebrand cleric Mufti Fazlul Haq Amini have called for a nationwide strike on Monday in response to the government's plan. The government insists that the new policy has no anti-Islamic provisions and invited the groups to a dialogue.

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Bangladesh

Survival of Islamic parties at stake

2010-07-29

[Bangla Daily Star] The religion-based political parties in the country are chalking out strategies for their survival as the Supreme Court verdict on the fifth amendment to the constitution paves the way for the government to ban the parties. They would come up with a complete course of action against the banning of the use of religion in politics once they receive a copy of the verdict, leaders of the parties said. Any attempt to ban Islam-based politics will be strongly opposed, the leaders said. "We disapprove of any move to ban the Islam-based political parties in an Islamic country like Bangladesh," Islami Oikyo Jote (IOJ) Chairman Fazlul Haq Amini told The Daily Star yesterday. Any conspiracy against Islam will not be tolerated, he said. The High Court in 2005 declared the fifth amendment illegal and the Appellate Division upheld the HC ruling with some modifications early this year. Full text of the ruling was released on Tuesday. The political parties will sit together soon to discuss the issue and try to come up with a resolution, said the leaders. IOJ General Secretary Abdul Latif Nezami said the like-minded parties have already started communicating with each other to set a common strategy against such moves. Acting Secretary General of Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami ATM Azharul Islam said the government is hatching a conspiracy to ban Islam-based politics in the name of restoring the 1972 constitution. An ill effort is on to create an extreme political crisis through banning the parties, he said at a press briefing at the party central office in the capital yesterday. Islami Shashantantra Andolan is observing the situation and would set their programmes after discussing with their legal experts, said Monirul Islam, information and research secretary of the party. Shafiq Uddin, secretary general of Khelafat Majlish, said it is not clear yet whether the religion-based political parties would be banned by the constitutional amendment. "We will comply with the constitution and rule of the country to keep our existence," he said.

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India-Pakistan

India confronts Bangladesh with terror ties

2006-03-14

Ayodhya, Delhi and now the twin Varanasi blasts. All three terror attacks had one thing in common. They were plotted and executed by the modules of Lashkar-e-Tayyeba (LeT) and Harkat-ul-Jehad-al-Islami (HuJI) based in Bangladesh. Armed with irrefutable evidence about the involvement of these terrorist groups in fomenting trouble on its soil, the Indian Government will inform Bangladesh Prime Minister Begum Khaleda Zia about the export of terror from her country when she visits New Delhi on March 20. India will also provide evidence to Begum Khaleda to back its oft-repeated demand seeking the closure of all Bangladesh-based terror camps, being used by Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) to carry out subversive activities on Indian soil. Sources said India will specifically convey its displeasure to Begum Khaleda on the continued presence of over 150 terrorist training camps engaged in supporting terrorist activities in the North Eastern region. India has already provided evidence to the Americans of the scores of terrorist camps being run in Bangladesh by al Qaeda with the connivance of fundamentalist forces and certain sections of the Bangladesh Government during the recent visit of US President George Bush. The US administration was also informed about the clandestine help being provided to these terrorist groups by Pakistan. After the disclosures of the Indian Government, the US administration is believed to have applied pressure on Bangladesh leading to the arrest of Siddiq-ul-Islam alias Bangla Bhai of the Jagrata Muslim Janata of Bangladesh (JMJB) by Bangladesh Police. Some time back, Assam Rifles had made a presentation to Home Minister Shivraj Patil about the subversive activities of ISI and Directorate General of Forces Intelligence (DGFI). Indian intelligence agencies have evidence to support their contention that the ISI and DGFI had closed ranks after the decimation of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan, and since then were trying to alter the demography of over a dozen districts of Assam and West Bengal sharing borders with Bangladesh by facilitating migration. The ISI and DGFI nexus has helped HuJI to grow and it has mainly been involved in anti-India activities. Launched with al Qaeda assistance in 1992, HuJI is mainly active in the southeastern coastal belt stretching from Chittagong through Cox Bazar to the Myanmar border. Its cadres allegedly infiltrate frequently into the bordering eastern region of India to co-ordinate with local terrorist outfits. Another terrorist outfit named Shahadat Al Hiqma is linked with LeT and Nepal-based Maoist organisations. Its leader, Shamim Uddin had once claimed that India's Most Wanted fugitive Dawood Ibrahim was among those who provided him funds. Intelligence sources say this too could not have happened without the approval of ISI. Islami Biplobi Paarishad, a radical outfit that was launched by Jammat-e-Islami leader Moulana Abdul Jabbar in June 2001, continues to fan anti-India sentiments. Islami Oikya Jote headed by Fazlul Haq Amini, a hardcore follower of Osama Bin Laden and currently a member of Parliament in Bangladesh is reportedly involved in provided logistics and moral support to those who indulge into anti-India activities.

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Bangladesh

Jamaat involved in recruiting militants with ISI help

2005-03-08

Awami League general secretary Abdul Jalil on Monday alleged that Jamaat-e-Islam is actively involved in recruiting militants from Bangladesh by AL-Qaida with the help of Pakistan intelligence service ISI, reports UNB. In a statement, the AL general secretary said Jamaat had strong link with Rohingya Solidarity Organization (RSO), a separatist group, which maintains direct connection with Al-Qaida. "Along Bangladesh-Myanmer border, Shibir cadres receive training under the shelter of international terrorists," Jalil claimed in his statement. The AL General Secretary issued the statement in protest against remarks by Jamaat leaders that to dig out information about terrorism, AL leaders, including Sheikh Hasina and Abu Sayeed, should be quizzed, not the Jamaat leaders. He said Jamaat is providing help to at least 16 fundamentalists outfits active in the country. Referring to Islami Oikya Jote President Fazlul Haq Amini's call to raid the Jamaat office, Jalil said Amini's statement proves that Jamaat has link with terrorist groups. He said anti-liberation force Jamaat and its allies are delivering inconsistent speeches as their real face has already exposed to the country's people. "It's historically proved that Jamaat is a terrorist party and hatching conspiracy is its habit. They had killed thousands of people and raped over three lakh women in 1971," said Jalil. He said Jamaat has indulged in a deep-rooted conspiring since it has been an ally of the ruling BNP to take revenge of their defeat in the Liberation War. "Jamaat has formed a strong network of terrorists across the country to implement its blueprint to kill the progressive-minded people, including AL leaders and activists," the AL General Secretary alleged.

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Afghanistan/South Asia

Tales From The Bangladesh Police Log

2005-02-23

Grenade blast at Moulvibazar shrine-Imam, madrasa teacher held A grenade exploded at Shaidingi shrine in Kulaura upazila of Moulvibazar on Sunday night badly damaging the structure of the shrine. No casualty, however, was reported while the roof of the shrine was blown up. Immediately after the explosion, locals captured a local Imam and a madrasa teacher on suspicion, and handed them over to police. That makes sense to me, muslim holy men and explosives seem to go together Police said the detainees -- Maruf Mohammed Ishaque, 22, and Quamrul -- had confessed their involvement in the explosion. "Ooch! Ouch! Ouch! Ooch! We confess! We dunnit!" Police declined to elaborate on the leads obtained from the two. A team of Bangladesh Army's explosive experts from Comilla had visited the scene and recovered splinters from the spot. Team leader Captain Manjur confirmed it to be a hand grenade. Police and locals said the grenade exploded at about 8:15pm sometime after a few thousand people had left Prithimpasa Nawab Bari where the local Shia community arranged an Ashura programme. The venue stands only 200 yards off the scene of the blast. Got all fired up at the Ashura program and had to boom something Maruf, who hailed from Haluaghat of Mymensingh, is Imam of the local mosque and a student of Karmadha Madrasa while Quamrul is a teacher of Darus Salam Madrasa in Sylhet. Besides the two, police held a woman at Budhpasa village on suspicion that her son could be another accomplice of Maruf and Quamrul. "Madame? You have a son named Mahmoud?" "Yeah? Whut's it to yez? Whut's he done now?" "Come with us, please!" "[Gasp!] To the abandoned warehouse?" "No, to the cop shoppe." "Whew. Okay." "And then we're going to the abandoned warehouse!" [gasp] "No! No! Anything but that!" Raushan Ara Begum, superintendent of Moulvibazar police, who visited the spot last night, told The Daily Star that police and army personnel are jointly investigating the incident. Dhamrai militants busted Twelve suspected extremists were arrested from Dhamrai, Jahangirnagar University (JU) and Joypurhat Sunday night. The six arrested from Dhamrai were found with bomb-making formulas, masks, wigs and important documents belonging to an extremist organisation, while JU authorities also found a timer and an audio tape containing a speech protesting attempts to arrest Osama bin Laden, Mufti Fazlul Haq Amini and Shaikhul Hadith Azizul Haque. Intelligence agencies, meantime, have mounted surveillance on a number of mosques in the north-western regions of the country in the wake of a recent wave of bomb attacks on various NGOs, including Brac and Grameen Bank. A patrol team of Dhamrai police challenged eight youths as they were walking by Joypura Jora bridge on the Dhaka-Aricha highway at 1:00am yesterday. Two of the youths ran away when they saw the police, and remaining six were arrested. It has been learned that four of the six Abdul Wahab, 26, Yakub Ali, 21, Faruq Hossain, 34, Rafiqul Islam, 18, Nurul Islam, 20, and Anwar Hossain, 23, -- are students of the area's Sharifabad Madrasa. Just good muslim schoolboys, out for a stroll at 1am. "Each of them was carrying a bag," Tareq Kamal, officer-in-charge of the Dhamrai Police Station, told reporters. "'Ere, now, lads! Wot's in the bags?" Searching their bags, police found pieces of glass, five diaries and a notebook, dresses for girls, ladies' underwear, masks, fake beards and moustaches, wigs and bomb-making formulas complete with drawings. Typical muslim school supplies, if you're a cross-dressing terrorist Police said all of the youths were wearing lungis and pajamas, but that each carried with them two extra dresses. Police also found three pairs of shoes, muri (fried rice), cakes, soft drinks and bottles of drinking water. The youths claimed they were returning from a feast at one Delwar Hossain's house, but police could not find anyone by that name in the area, raising doubts about the youth's motives for roaming the highway at night. Sounds like every episode of "COPS" where they pull over a car in a crack neighborhood: "What are you boys doing down here tonight?" "Visting a friends house." "Yeah, where's your friend live?" "Err, over there" "What's your friends name?" "Ah, err, ummmmm...." "OK, hands on the car..." A police source said the arrested disclosed the names of eight members of 'their people'. Local police officials suspected, based on the recovered items, that the youths were preparing to undertake an operation. "Legume, I believe they were preparing to undertake an operation!" "Gosh, Inspector! How do you do it?" Several police sources said the extremists have a safe den somewhere in the area, where they are training young members. Reporters have not been permitted to speak with the arrestees. Three hard boyz arrested at Water Development Board mosque Police arrested three activists of Jamaatul Mujahidin from the Water Development Board mosque in Thakurgaon on Thursday night. The arrestees are Amanat Ullah, Mamun ur Rashid and Mahbub Alam. Following the statement police raided the house of one Asiruddin, 50, of Laxmipur village in Sadar upazila of Thakurgaon and seized bomb making materials, acid, splinters, electrical wire, batteries, a dummy rifle made of bamboo and rod, some books and leaflets as well as a cycle of violence motor cycle. SEE: muslim school supplies Police said the arrestees admitted to police that they were carrying out anti-NGO propaganda at the direction of Bangla Bhai, operation commander of Jagrata Muslim Janata Bangladesh (JMJB), and Dr Asadullah Galib of Rajshahi University. Earlier, in the first week of February, police arrested 12 members of Jamaatul Mujahidin activists from a mosque in Natore. Superintendent of Police (SP) of Thakurgaon Khandaker Golam Faruq said there are thousands of mosques, but such activities. "It is not possible to watch every mosque by limited forces," he said. 100 hurt in clash over grass land At least 100 people including a woman were injured in a clash between two groups of villagers at Madir Haor of Ashurail village under Buresheyar union in Nasirnagar upazila over cutting grass from a disputed land on Friday. Aksir Mia of a group led by Md Karim member and Younus Mia of their rival group led by Farid Mia exchanged hot words following cutting of grass at the disputed land, according to eye-witnesses, hospital and police sources. "Hey, git yur hands off my grass!" At one stage they began a wrestling. Being informed, at least 800 supporters of both the groups equipped with lethal weapons rushed to the spot and locked in a bloody clash that lasted for two hours.

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Afghanistan/South Asia

Action against fanatics demanded

2004-08-24

Workers Party of Bangladesh (WPB) yesterday demanded of the government to take action against the Islamic fanatics. It expressed concern at the death threats issued to journalists, teachers, intellectuals and politicians by the fanatics. At a discussion at the party office, WPB leaders expressed deep concern over the activities of the fundamentalists against the daily Prothom Alo. They said the fundamentalists had burnt copies of the Prothom Alo and ransacked its billboards in the capital for publishing stories on the involvement of madrassa students in the activities of the Islamic zealots. The fundamentalist have also obstructed the sale of the daily at different districts and demanded the cancellation of its declaration, they said. The WPB leaders blamed Fazlul Haq Amini, leader of the Islamic Oikyajote, for encouraging the fundamentalists. They expressed concern at the attack on different Ahmadiya mosques.

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India-Pakistan

Bangla MPs want Ahmadiyyas declared non-Muslim

2003-12-28

Anti-Ahmadiyya religious activists in Bangladesh on Friday threatened to sideline members of parliament (MPs), elected on an Islamic manifesto, if they do not table a bill declaring the Ahmadiyyas as non-Muslims in the next parliament session. Part of the continuing low-level pogrom against them... “Since they promised an Islamic society, Motiur Rahman Nizami, Fazlul Haq Amini, Delwar Hossain Sayeedi, MPs of the Jamaat-e-Islami and other Islamic parties, must place a bill in parliament,” demanded Mahmudul Hasan Mamtazi, amir of the Khatme Nabuwat Andolon Coordination Committee, an anti-Ahmadiyya alliance. “If you don’t do so, beware Nizami, Amini, Sayeedi and others, we will stage a sit down wherever we find you,” warned Mr Mamtazi in a demonstration in Dhaka. Y'see, under the caliphate, there will be tolerance and justice in the world... Some fifteen hundred anti-Ahmadiyyas of a conglomerate of Islamist outfits took part in the demonstration jointly organised by the Nabuwat Anodolon and Aamra Dhakabashi, a socio-cultural organisation, on the Shaheed Faruq Road after Friday prayers. “We will paralyse the whole country if the government does not evict the ‘Ahmadiyyas’ from the Nakhalpara Ahmadiyya mosque by January 9,” Mr Mamtazi threatened. “We will begin a countrywide agitation demanding declaration of the Ahmadiyyas as non-Muslims and freeing the mosques from their occupation,” he added. Hmmm... A lot of money flows into Nakhalpara Ahmadiyya mosque, huh?

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