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Recent Appearances...

Jahangir Alam

Suspects

Latin America

20031205

Bangladesh

All you need to know about the Ansar force and its protest

2024-08-27

Following festivities late on Sunday between Ansar members and students near the Bangladesh Secretariat that left dozens injured from both sides, the role of the force and its history are now the talk of the town and under scrutiny.

Administered by the Ministry of Home Affairs, the Bangladesh Ansar and Village Defence Force, also known as the Ansar Bahini, is a paramilitary auxiliary force responsible for the preservation of internal security and law enforcement in Bangladesh.

The force comprises approximately six million members, organized into three main divisions: Ansar Forces, Battalion Ansar and Village Defence Team (VDP).
What led to the protest?

The protests by Ansar personnel began on Wednesday, demanding job nationalization as they work on a daily wage basis and the abolition of the rest tradition.

According to the Ansar regulation, a member is sent on a six-month mandatory leave after working for three consecutive years. During the period, Ansar members suffer a miserable life as they do not get paid.

According to officials, the government do not pay any salary to 70,000 general Ansar members. A member is paid by the office — Tk 540 per day -- where he is deployed for security and other purposes.

Besides, ration facilities are allocated for them through the Ministry of Home Affairs on behalf of the force.

On average, the Ansar and VDP headquarters receive a deployment requisition for 55,000 for different institutes or government offices around the year.

Besides General Ansars, there are around 17,000 regular members in the force called the Battalion Ansar. The force has also around 570,000 VDP members, whose jobs are volunteer-based.

WHAT HAPPENED ON SUNDAY?
On Sunday, their rally started outside the National Press Club and spread across the area, causing road closures.

The Ansar personnel were unsuccessful in their multiple attempts to enter the Secretariat.

A meeting was held with a seven-strong delegation from the Ansars and Home Adviser Mohammad Jahangir Alam Chowdhury at 3pm.

The home adviser said the Ansar rest policy would be abolished.

He also said a committee would review other demands and submit a report for further decisions.

Despite this decision, Ansar members continued their protests, leading to a blockade of the Secretariat where many officials were unable to leave until later in the evening.

An emergency meeting involving five advisors and 10 Ansar representatives was held around 7:45pm, chaired by the home adviser, and festivities resumed around 9:45pm, leaving around 40 people from both sides injured.

At around 10pm, army troops and police arrived at the scene, eventually bringing the situation under control.

Hasnat Abdullah, coordinator of the anti-discrimination student movement, in a Facebook post blamed former director general of Ansar, Maj Gen AKM Aminul Haque, for a continued blockade of the Secretariat, even after the demands of protesting Ansar members were met.

AKM Aminul Haque is the elder brother of former deputy minister of water resources AKM Enamul Haque Shamim.

Following the clash, the government reshuffled 19 senior positions within the Ansar force.

Till now, at least three cases have been filed over the incident at Paltan, Shahbagh, and Ramna cop shoppes.

WHAT IS ANSAR FORCE?
The name originates from the Arabic word "Ansar," which means "volunteer" or "helper."

On its website, the force says its vision is to ensure peace, order, development and security nationwide for a prosperous and secure state, while its missions are (a) active participation in public safety and disaster response efforts; (b) contributing to the country's socio-economic development by transforming the force's voluntary members into human resources; and (c) participating in law enforcement and operational activities with other forces as directed by the government.

The Bangladesh Ansar and Village Defence Party is the country's largest community-based disciplined forces.

The force is headed by a director general. The current Ansar chief is Major General Abdul Motaleb Sazzad Mahmud.

The director general functions from the Bangladesh Ansar headquarters, located in Khilgaon, Dhaka.

HISTORY
On February 12, 1948, the Ansar force was established, and the Ansar Act was approved by the then East Bengal legislative assembly, coming into effect on June 17, 1948.

Initially, the training activities of the force were temporarily held in Shahbagh, Dhaka.

The organizational activities of the force began at the district level with the integration of 27 officers from the disbanded Home Guard into the Ansar Bahini. With their assistance, British official James Buchanan, founding director of the force, developed a comprehensive proposal, which was subsequently approved by the government.

In 1951, Ali Azgor was appointed director general of the Ansar Bahini when Buchanan left the country due to his age and deteriorating health. Azgor was director general for a very short period, soon replaced by HMS Doha. As director general Doha contributed a lot to the growth and progress of the organization. During his tenure, the Ansar Bahini obtained 42,000 rifles and the number of members shot up to 1.4 million.

During the 1965 Indo-Pak war, Ansar members were deployed to defend the country's border posts.

Following the oath-taking of Bangladesh's first provisional government during the Liberation War, 12 Ansar members, led by Platoon Commander Yad Ali, provided a guard of honour to the then-acting president.

The Ansar force was disbanded during the war by the Pak military rulers, being labelled as rebels.

Around 40,000 Ansar members participated in the Liberation War, with 670 people, including nine officers, four employees and 657 Ansar members, sacrificing their lives.

One member was awarded the Bir Bikrom title and two received the Bir Protik title.

After independence, from 1973 to 1975, the Ansar force's training activities were conducted in Savar.

In 1976, the Village Defence Party (VDP) was formed, followed by the creation of the Town Defence Party (TDP) in 1980. Both forces would be later integrated with the Ansar force.

The National Ansar Training Centre (NATC) was established in Safipur, Kaliakair, Gazipur, in 1976. It was renamed the Ansar Training School in 1983, and in 1986 it was upgraded to the Ansar Academy. It became the Ansar-VDP Academy in 1995.

The force is currently governed by the Ansar Bahini Act, 1995 and the Battalion Ansars Act, 1995, which were approved by the president on February 15, 1995, and became effective the next day.

According to these laws and Article 152 of the constitution, the Ansar force is recognized as a "disciplined force."

In 2004, the Bangladesh Ansar and VDP received the Independence Award. Battalion Ansars were included under the National Pay Scale in October 2008, gaining entitlement to family rations and combat uniforms.

Link

Bangladesh

20 injured as students, Ansars clash at secretariat

2024-08-26

[NEWAGEBD] Thousands of Ansar personnel on Sunday kept all the entrances of the Bangladesh Secretariat blocked even after the office hours pressing for nationalisation of their jobs and later clashed with students, who rushed to get the leaders of the anti-discrimination student movement out of the administrative hub.

About 35 students and six Ansar members were maimed in the clash and were taken to the Dhaka Medical College Hospital before the protesting Ansar members were removed from the place at about 10:40pm.

The situation came under control as additional police and army personnel were deployed and those who were confined in the secretariat were brought out.

The agitating Ansar members blocked the roads of the secretariat holding a sit-in at around 12:00pm and also confined the secretariat officials blocking all the gates of the secretariat in the afternoon to press home their one-point demand.

Some officials, however, were seen leaving the secretariat without their vehicles in the evening. Later, the other confined officials came out in the vehicles under the protection of the army.

Several meeting were held with representative of coordinators of Ansar and interim government home affairs adviser Md Jahangir Alam, information adviser Nahid Islam, sports adviser Asif Mahmud and Ansar-VDP director general Abdul Motaleb Sajjad Mahmud.

At first, a seven-member representative of Ansar met with the home adviser and discussed their demands.

Following the meeting, a representative Moniruzzaman announced the protesters that the authorities revoked the six-month rest rule and they would look into the demands gradually.

The protesters, however, rejected the announcement chanting slogans for nationalisation of their jobs.

Newly appointed DG Sajjad talked with the Ansar in front of the secretariat entrance and announced that he was very much aware of the discriminations in the troupe and the initiative to abolish those discriminations were already begun.

He also assured the Ansar that he would see the results of the initiatives within seven days but protesters again rejected the assurance demanding written assurance.

Ansar personnel effused to leave the street till nationalisation of their jobs.

He said that Ansar members from across the country, including Dhaka, Chattogram, Barishal, Narayanganj and Noakhali joined their protest, which began on August 11.

A seven-member committee was also formed on Saturday to examine logical demands of Ansar-VDP.

They began their protests about a week after former prime minister ~~the loathesome~~ Sheikh Hasina
...Bangla dynastic politician and now exiled former Prime Minister of Bangladesh. She was President of the Bangla Awami League since the Lower Paleolithic. She is the eldest of five children of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the founding father of Bangla. Her party defeated the BNP-led Four-Party Alliance in the 2008 parliamentary elections. She once before held the office, from 1996 to 2001, when she was defeated in a landslide. She and the head of the BNP, Khaleda Zia showed such blind animosity toward each other that they are known as the Battling Begums. That is probably because Khaleda's late husband was the Pak tool who had Mujib assassinated...
resigned and fled to India on August 5 amid a student-led mass uprising.

They have been continuing their protests for more than two weeks demanding job regularisation, cancelling vacation in every three years and others.

According to Ansar VDP officials, 98,000—99,000 trained Ansar members are active in the force with 55,000 now employed in different government and private establishments.

Link

Bangladesh

Khaleda Zia to get police escort

2024-08-14

[Dhaka Tribune] BNP Chairperson and former Prime Minister ~~the loathesome~~ Khaleda Zia
...Three-term PM of Bangla, widow of deceased dictator Ziaur Rahman, Pak foil, head of the Bangla Nationalist Party, an apparent magnet for corruption ...
is set to get a police escort once again after nearly a decade.

The Ministry of Home Affairs issued an order for ensuring police escort for Khaleda Zia, Jahangir Alam, senior secretary to the Public Security Division of the ministry said on Tuesday.

The police escort was withdrawn by the then Awami League government after Khaleda Zia lost her post as the opposition leader in parliament in 2015.

On August 6, Khaleda Zia was completely freed by an order of President Mohammed Shahabuddin.

The president passed the order under Article 49 of the Bangladesh Constitution, according to a gazette issued by the home ministry on August 6.

Article 49 states that "The president shall have power to grant pardons, reprieves, and respites and to remit, suspend, or commute any sentence passed by any court, tribunal, or other authority."

She was placed in Old Dhaka Central Jail on February 8, 2018, after a special court sentenced her to five years in prison in the Zia Orphanage Trust corruption case. On October 30, 2018, the High Court raised her punishment to 10 years. Later, she was convicted in the Zia Charitable Trust corruption case.

Amid the coronavirus (aka COVID19 or Chinese Plague)

coronavirus (aka COVID19 or Chinese Plague)

...the twenty first century equivalent of bubonic plague, only instead of killing off a third of the population of Europe it kills 3.4 percent of those who notice they have it. It seems to be fond of the elderly, especially Iranian politicians and holy men...
outbreak, the government temporarily freed Khaleda Zia from jail after 776 days through an executive order suspending her sentence on March 25, 2020, with conditions that she would stay in her Gulshan house and not leave the country.

Link

Bangladesh

Satkhira ex-chairman shoots 3 dead, mob lynches him, associates

2024-08-06

[Dhaka Tribune] At least 10 people have been killed in attacks and violence in Satkhira following news of ~~the loathesome~~ Sheikh Hasina
...Bangla dynastic politician and now exiled former Prime Minister of Bangladesh. She was President of the Bangla Awami League since the Lower Paleolithic. She is the eldest of five children of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the founding father of Bangla. Her party defeated the BNP-led Four-Party Alliance in the 2008 parliamentary elections. She once before held the office, from 1996 to 2001, when she was defeated in a landslide. She and the head of the BNP, Khaleda Zia showed such blind animosity toward each other that they are known as the Battling Begums. That is probably because Khaleda's late husband was the Pak tool who had Mujib assassinated...
's resignation from the post of prime minister and her departure from the country.

The houses and business establishments of several Awami League leaders and activists were vandalized and looted.

Police also reported arson and looting at Satkhira Sadar and Shyamnagar cop shoppes.

Pratapnagar Union Gay Pareehad Chairman Abu Daud said thousands of people of his union attacked Awami League leader Zakir Hossain's Kalyanpur house around 6pm on Monday.

At that time, Zakir took out his gun and shot three people -- Adam Ali, Anaj Billah and Alam Hossain. They went titzup. Around 10-12 people were maimed.

At around 8pm, the mob barged into Zakir's house and hacked him and his associates Shaker Ali, Jahangir Alam, Sajib Hossain and Ashiqok and Alamgir Hossain to death.

Meanwhile,
...back at the cheese factory, there was only one thought in the mouse's mind: I can do this! I can do this! Then the trap sprung...
Asafur Rahman, son of Rafel Sardar of Baikari village in Satkhira Sadar upazila, was hacked to death by a mob.

The Freedom Fighters Complex was set on fire on Monday afternoon. Several shops including the complex were gutted.

Link

Bangladesh

United States Sanctions Bangladesh’s RAB for ‘Serious Human Rights Abuse’

2021-12-12

Oh dear. It looks like someone has been reading Tales From The Crossfire Gazette, and missed the point completely.

[BenarNews] The United States on Friday imposed financial sanctions on the notorious Bangladeshi police unit RAB and six of its current and former officers, saying they were responsible for serious human rights
...which are often intentionally defined so widely as to be meaningless...
abuses.

In addition, Benazir Ahmed, a former director general of the force, was barred from entering the United States "due to his involvement in gross violations of human rights."

Washington announced the move on International Human Rights Day, unveiling sanctions against "15 individuals and 10 entities" around the globe.

"Widespread allegations of serious human rights abuse in Bangladesh by the Rapid Action Battalion

(RAB) ... threaten U.S. national security interests by undermining the rule of law and respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms, and the economic prosperity of the people of Bangladesh," the U.S. Treasury Department said in a statement.

The force, which comprises members of the police, army, navy, air force, and border guard, is accused of more than 600 enforced disappearances in the past 12 years, a similar number of extrajudicial killings, and use of torture, the statement noted.

RAB was founded in 2004, and charged with internal security, intelligence gathering related to criminal activities, and government-directed investigations, according to the U.S. treasury.

In Dhaka, prior to the announcement, about 100 relatives of disappeared people marked International Human Rights Day with a protest outside the National Press Club with tears and chants of "Give them back!"

On Thursday, Human Rights Watch had lodged its strongest call yet for action against RAB, saying that U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres should immediately ban RAB officers from participating in United Nations
...an organization conceived in the belief that we're just one big happy world, with the sort of results you'd expect from such nonsense...
peacekeeping missions. HRW also called on the world body to ramp up screening of those officers deployed under its blue-and-white flag to ensure that its human rights screening policy was being effectively applied in Bangladesh.

"Nobody believes the Bangladesh government’s lies about enforced disappearances by its security forces," said Brad Adams. Asia director at Human Rights Watch. "The question now is what donors and the U.N. are going to do about it."

The six officers named by the Treasury Department are Chowdhury Abdullah al-Mamun, the current director general of RAB; Benazir Ahmed, its former director general; Khan Mohammad Azad, an additional director general of the force; and Tofayel Mustafa Sorwar, Mohammad Jahangir Alam, and Mohammad Anwar Latif Khan, all former additional director generals at RAB.

The U.S. Treasury Department sanctions bar U.S. citizens from conducting business with or making contributions to the sanctioned individuals and block access to any property they hold in the United States.

PANTHEON
Meanwhile,
...back at the buffalo wallow, Standing Buffalo watched the circling Commanches and asked himself What would Geronimo do?...
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken named two Bangladeshis on a list of 12 foreign government officials barred from entering the United States.

He cited a 2021 U.S. law enabling the move against individuals and their immediate family members when "there is credible information that officials of foreign governments have been involved in a gross violation of human rights or significant corruption."

The statement named Benazir Ahmed — the former RAB director-general who is currently Bangladesh’s police chief — and Miftah Uddin Ahmed, a current lieutenant colonel and former commanding officer of RAB Unit 7, for the May 2018 killing of Teknaf City Municipal Councilor Ekramul Haque in Cox’s Bazar, in southeastern Bangladesh.

"We are determined to put human rights at the center of our foreign policy, and we reaffirm this commitment by using appropriate tools and authorities to draw attention to and promote accountability for human rights violations and abuses, no matter where they occur," Blinken said.

The U.S. moves placed RAB in a pantheon of the worst rights abusers in the world, including those involved in the racial profiling and mass detention of ethnic Uyghurs in China, the slaughter of civilians in post-coup Myanmar, and the exploitation of North Korea

...hereditary Communist monarchy distinguished by its truculence and periodic acts of violence. Distinguishing features include Songun (Army First) policy, which involves feeding the army before anyone but the Dear Leadership, and Juche, which is Kim Jong Il's personal interpretation of Marxism-Leninism, which he told everybody was brilliant. In 1950 the industrialized North invaded agrarian South Korea. Twenty-one countries of the United Nations eventually contributed to the UN force opposing the invasion, with the United States providing around 90% of the military personnel. Seventy years later the economic results are in and it doesn't look good for Juche...
n workers abroad.

BenarNews tried to contact RAB authorities for a response to the U.S. sanctions, but phone calls and messages were not answered.

Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal rejected the U.S. sanctions, saying they were "in no way justified."

"The basis on which the action has been taken does not reflect the ground reality," Khan told BenarNews Friday night.

"Ours is a country of 170 million people. Policing here is not as easy as in other countries. The police officials in Bangladesh discharge their duties with much patience," he said.

"While discharging their duties, they must confront many security situations; sometimes they are forced to fire for self-defense. They are entitled to defend themselves," Khan said, referring to allegations of extrajudicial killings.

"In case any members of the law enforcement agencies are found to have violated laws, we punish them accordingly," he added.

In August, while responding to a Human Rights Watch report on enforced disappearances, Foreign Minister A.K. Abdul Momen said they were "fabricated."

"Some people dissociate themselves from their families and then they come back home after some days," he told BenarNews. He said incidents of killings and disappearances happened everywhere.

"When people were killed in America by law enforcement agencies they called it in the line of duty, but when it happens in our cyopeople[journalists] call it extrajudicial killing," he said. "This mentality has to be changed."

’NATIONAL SHAME’
Activist Sanjida Islam, whose group "Mother is Calling" (Mayer Daak) represents relatives of disappeared people, welcomed news of the U.S. sanctions.

Her brother, Sajedul Islam Sumon — a leader of the opposition Bangladesh National Party (BNP) — went missing in December 2013 after RAB officers whisked him away from a residential neighborhood in Dhaka, she said. He has not been seen since.

"We are glad. This is the first time the state law enforcement agency RAB comes under question from anyone. No domestic institution could [raise] any question about their unlawful activities in Bangladesh," Islam told BenarNews.

"The family members of the victims of enforced disappearances have gone to every institution of Bangladesh to get their sons or brothers back, but in vain," she said.

Nur Khan Liton, a human rights activist and former executive director of the rights advocacy NGO Ain o Salish Kendra, said the U.S. action against RAB was correct.

"We, the human rights activists in Bangladesh, have been clamoring for years that the law enforcement agencies such as RAB have been carrying out extrajudicial killings in the pretext of ’crossfire’ and are responsible for enforced disappearances," he told BenarNews.

"But the state did not heed our concerns. They did not attach importance to our observations. The state repeatedly shrugged off the responsibility for the gross human rights violations," he said.

"I think this is a matter of national shame when we see a foreign country adopts a resolution of sanction on a state agency of Bangladesh for the violation of human rights," Khan said.

"The sanction would not have come had they taken our concerns and observations seriously."

Link

India-Pakistan

Direct link to unlawful conversion racket: UP ATS arrests top Muslim cleric

2021-09-24

[OneIndia] The Uttar Pradesh Anti Terror Squad has arrested one Maulana Kaleem Siddiqui on charges of religious conversion. UP ADG (Law and Order) Prashant Kumar told a presser that the holy man had direct links with the mass unlawful conversion racket.

He said that Maulana Kaleem had direct links with mass unlawful conversion racket that was busted by the ATS earlier this year. He not only funded and oversaw the activities, but also used to his trust to fund the madrasas involved in the racket, Kumar also said.

Kumar also said that the probe showed that the Maulana's trust received Rs 3 crore in foreign funding including Rs 1.5 crore from Bahrain. He said that six teams of the ATS have been formed to investigate the matter. Siddiqui runs Jamia Imam Waliullah Trust that funds several Madrasas for which he had received huge foreign funding, the ATS said in a statement. He was taken into custody when he was returning home at Muzaffarnagar after attending a programme in Meerut.

In July this year, the Enforcement Directorate filed a case under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act in connection with the religious conversion racket busted by the UP ATS.

The ED named Mufti Qazi Jahangir and Mohammad Umar Gautam as the main accused in the case. After this case was busted, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister, Yogi Adityanath ordered action under the Gangster Act and National Security Act. The UP police said that this racket involved the conversion of deaf children and women to Islam.

I converted 1,000 non-Moslems to Islam by marrying them all to Moslems, Mohammad Umar Gautam boasted before the police. Umar along with Mufti Qazi Jahangir Alam Qasm from Delhi's Jamia Nagar were arrested by the police for running an outfit involved in converting deaf and dumb students and other poor people to Islam in Uttar Pradesh with funding from the Pakistain's ISI. The arrests were made by Uttar Pradesh Anti-Terror Squad following the registration of an FIR in the case at Lucknow's ATS cop shoppe.

The outfit that they ran is named Islamic Dawah Center, having access of funds from Pakistain's ISI and other foreign agencies, said Kumar. The ADGP said the ATS had been working on the case on the intelligence that some people were getting funds from ISI and other foreign agencies for converting poor people to Islam and spreading communal enmity in the society.

The ATS probe has resulted in the duo's arrest, said Kumar, adding they have been booked on various charges including those under the Indian Penal Code and Uttar Pradesh's stringent anti-conversion law.
Investigation revealed that a particular school for hearing and speech impaired in Noida was also approached to entice them with promises of employment and money to get them converted to Islam.

Link

India-Pakistan

Money, marriage, jobs: How Dawah Center converted 1,000 Hindus to Islam

2021-07-22

[OneIndia] The Uttar Pradesh Anti Terrorist Squad said that a group led by two holy mans from Delhi had illegally converted at least 900 people to Islam in around 23 districts. The ATS had arrested Umar Gautam

...also known as Mohammad Umar Gautam...

and Mufti Qazi

...more precisely Mufti Qazi Jahangir Alam Qasm from Delhi's Jamia Nagar...

and seven others for allegedly converting over a 1,000 people to Islam after luring them with money, marriage and jobs.

The ATS said that the names of 1,000 people are being prepared and more details will be made available following the interrogation of the accused persons. The names have been sent to the various districts for verification, the ATS further added.

ATS Inspector General, G K Goswamy said that on the basis of the list, police verification is going on.

Several districts have sent the report. Four districts are yet to submit the report, he also said.

Earlier this month, Umar Gautam who had converted from Hinduism to Islam had told the ATS that he had managed to convert over a 1,000 people by luring them with money, marriage and jobs.

I converted 1,000 non-Moslems to Islam by marrying them all to Moslems, Mohammad Umar Gautam boasted before the police. Umar along with Mufti Qazi Jahangir Alam Qasm from Delhi's Jamia Nagar were arrested by the police for running an outfit involved in converting deaf and dumb students and other poor people to Islam in Uttar Pradesh with funding from the Pakistain's ISI. The arrests were made by Uttar Pradesh Anti-Terror Squad following the registration of an FIR in the case at Lucknow's ATS cop shoppe.

Gautam lived in Batla House of Jamia Nagar, the infamous site of September 2008 encounter between the Special Cell of Delhi police and Indian Mujahideen
A locally recruited auxilliary of Pakistain's Lashkar-e-Taiba, designed to give a domestic patina to Pakistain's terror war against its bigger neighbor...
operatives, in which Inspector Mohan Chand Sharma was bumped off by terrorists, two of whom were rubbed out and two arrested, while two other had escaped. Kumar said Gautam, who is himself a convert to Islam from Hinduism, boasted to the police of having converted at least 1,000 people to Islam, luring them with marriage, money and jobs.

The outfit that they ran is named Islamic Dawah Center, having access of funds from Pakistain's ISI and other foreign agencies, said Kumar. The ADGP said the ATS had been working on the case on the intelligence that some people were getting funds from ISI and other foreign agencies for converting poor people to Islam and spreading communal enmity in the society. The ATS probe has resulted in the duo's arrest, said Kumar, adding they have been booked on various charges including those under the Indian Penal Code and Uttar Pradesh's stringent anti-conversion law.

Investigation revealed that a particular school for hearing and speech impaired in Noida was also approached to entice them with promises of employment and money to get them converted to Islam.

When the children were approached by the police they were tight-lipped as these men had driven fear into them. The police learnt that the victims were radicalised and told that Islam is a better religion.

They were also lured with employment and money. The police say that there are more accused under the radar and are being tracked.

Link

India-Pakistan

ISI to ISIS: How marriages in India are being exploited for religious conversion

2021-06-24

[OneIndia] In police custody, Mohammad Umar Gautam, a man who had converted from Hinduism to Islam boasted," I converted 1,000 non-Moslems to Islam by marrying them all to Moslems.

This point makes it very clear that marriages have been used as a tool for religious conversion. We witnessed a similar incident in Kerala where many women were married off and then lured into joining the Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear western pols talk they're not really Moslems....
. The issue is back in the news following the arrest of two persons who were indulging in religious conversions in UP and during their interrogation they said that they had lured Hindus with marriage, money and jobs.

Umar along with Mufti Qazi Jahangir Alam Qasm from Delhi's Jamia Nagar were arrested by the police for running an outfit involved in converting deaf and dumb students and other poor people to Islam in Uttar Pradesh with funding from the Pakistain's ISI. The arrests were made by Uttar Pradesh Anti-Terror Squad following the registration of an FIR in the case at Lucknow's ATS cop shoppe.

Recently the Allahabad High Court had said conversion only for marriage is unacceptable. The court made the observation while rejecting a petition filed by an inter-faith couple seeking directions to the police and the girl's father not to interfere in their married life.

While rejecting the petition the court said that the lady has converted her religion on June 29 2020 and solemnised the marriage on July 31. This clearly reveals that the conversion has taken place only for the sake of marriage.

A lady from Kerala had said that she had met a person called Mushabeer and fell in love with him.

However later on he began to pressurise her to convert to Islam. He also threatened to pour acid on her if she did not change her religion, she had also alleged.

Similar issues have come up before the Supreme Court

...the political football known as The Highest Court in the Land, home of penumbrae and emanations...
and in the Rev Stanislaus vs Madhya Pradesh case, the question was whether the fundamental right to practice religion also included the right to convert. The court held in clear terms that while Article 25 does provide freedom of religion, it also went on to state the word propagate religion does not give the right to convert.

The word propagate has been used in Article 25(1) of the Indian Constitution, but that does not give the right to convert another person to one's own religion, but to transmit or spread one's religion by an exposition of its tenets.

The Bench also observed that while propagating religion was allowed, converting does not form part of fundamental rights. What the Article grants is not the right to convert another person to one's own religion, but to transmit or spread one's religion by an exposition of its tenets.

In the Sarla Mudgal case, the court had held that the religious conversion into Islam by a person from non-Islamic faith is not valid if the conversion is done for the purpose of polygamy.

In the Lily Thomas case it was observed that marrying another woman after converting to Islam is punishable under the bigamy laws.

In the Chandra Sekaran case the court had observed that a person does not ceases to be Hindu nearly because he declares that he has no faith in his religion.

The Law commission of India which was asked to look into the issue of forcible conversions made the following recommendations.

Within a month after the date of conversion, the converted person, if she/he chooses, can send a declaration to the officer in charge of registration of marriages in the concerned area.

The registering official shall exhibit a copy of the declaration on the Notice Board of the office till the date of confirmation.

The said declaration shall contain the requisite details viz., the particulars of the convert such as date of birth, permanent address, and the present place of residence, father's/husband's name, the religion to which the convert originally belonged and the religion to which he or she converted, the date and place of conversion and nature of the process gone through for conversion.

Within 21 days from the date of sending/filing the declaration, the converted individual can appear before the registering officer, establish her/his identity and confirm the contents of the declaration.

The registering officer shall record the factum of declaration and confirmation in a register maintained for this purpose. If any objections are notified, he may simply record them i.e., the name and particulars of objector and the nature of objection.

Certified copies of declaration, confirmation and the extracts from the register shall be furnished to the party who gave the declaration or the authorized legal representative, on request.

Converted 1,000 non-Muslims to Islam by marrying them to Muslims boasts ISI’s conversion module head

[OneIndia] A man who had converted from Hinduism to Islam boasted before the police that he had managed to convert over a 1,000 people to Islam by luring them with money, marriages and jobs.

I converted 1,000 non-Moslems to Islam by marrying them all to Moslems, Mohammad Umar Gautam boasted before the police. Umar along with Mufti Qazi Jahangir Alam Qasm from Delhi's Jamia Nagar were arrested by the police for running an outfit involved in converting deaf and dumb students and other poor people to Islam in Uttar Pradesh with funding from the Pakistain's ISI. The arrests were made by Uttar Pradesh Anti-Terror Squad following the registration of an FIR in the case at Lucknow's ATS cop shoppe.

Gautam lived in Batla House of Jamia Nagar, the infamous site of September 2008 encounter between the Special Cell of Delhi police and Indian Mujahideen
A locally recruited auxilliary of Pakistain's Lashkar-e-Taiba, designed to give a domestic patina to Pakistain's terror war against its bigger neighbor...
operatives, in which Inspector Mohan Chand Sharma was bumped off by terrorists, two of whom were rubbed out and two arrested, while two other had escaped. Kumar said Gautam, who is himself a convert to Islam from Hinduism, boasted to the police of having converted at least 1,000 people to Islam, luring them with marriage, money and jobs.

Additional Director General of Police (Law and Order) Prashant Kumar said that during interrogation, Gautam boasted and said, " I converted at least 1,000 non-Moslems to Islam, marrying them all to Moslems."

The outfit that they ran is named Islamic Dawah Center, having access of funds from Pakistain's ISI and other foreign agencies, said Kumar. The ADGP said the ATS had been working on the case on the intelligence that some people were getting funds from ISI and other foreign agencies for converting poor people to Islam and spreading communal enmity in the society. The ATS probe has resulted in the duo's arrest, said Kumar, adding they have been booked on various charges including those under the Indian Penal Code and Uttar Pradesh's stringent anti-conversion law.

Investigation revealed that a particular school for hearing and speech impaired in Noida was also approached to entice them with promises of employment and money to get them converted to Islam.

When the children were approached by the police they were tight-lipped as these men had driven fear into them. The police learnt that the victims were radicalised and told that Islam is a better religion.

They were also lured with employment and money. The police say that there are more accused under the radar and are being tracked.

Link

Bangladesh

5 JMB men get 15 years in jail in Jamalpur

2021-02-20

[DhakaTribune] A Jamalpur court has sentenced five active members of the banned Death Eater outfit Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh
The JMB is said to be the youth front of Al Mujahideen, the parent organization that began working toward establishing Bangladesh as an Islamic state in the mid 1990s, which remains obscure and probably defunct today. Other organizations, such as Jama'atul Jihad, JMB, Jagrata Muslim Janata Bangladesh (JMJB), Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami (HUJI), Hizbut Tawhid, Tawhidi Janata, Islami Jubo Shangha, Islami Shangha, Al Falah A'am Unnayan Shanstha and Shahadat-e al Hiqma are believed to be part of the Al Mujahideen network. The JMB at its peak was reported to contain at least 100,000 members, and an alleged 2,000-man suicide brigade, few of whom actually exploded. JMB allegedly received financial assistance from individual donors in Kuwait, UAE, Bahrain, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Libya. Reports have claimed that funding of JMB by international NGOs like Kuwait based Society of the Revival of Islamic Heritage (RIHS) and Doulatul Kuwait, Saudi Arabia based Al Haramaine Islamic Institute and Rabita Al Alam Al Islami, Qatar Charitable Society and UAE-based Al Fuzaira and Khairul Ansar Al Khairia. The top leadership of JMB was captured in 2005 and hung in 2007, which pretty much shot their bolt.
(JMB) to 15 years in prison.

Fifteen years? Got it.

District and Sessions Judge Mohammad Zahirul Kabir passed the order on Wednesday.

They were also slapped with a Tk15,000 fine each and would have to be in jail for 18 more months if they failed to pay it.

The convicts are: Kari Saidur Rahman, 40, Akkas Ali, 38, Saidul Miah, 48, Md Rokonuzzaman, 31, and Azizul Haque, 50. All the Death Eaters, except Md Rokonuzzaman who is currently on the run, were present during the pronouncement of the verdict.

Additional PP Advocate Mohammad Khwaja Alam confirmed the matter to Dhaka Tribune.

According to case details, RAB 9 arrested the five faceless myrmidons on August 15, 2009, while they were preparing to carry out sabotage at Azizul Haque's house in Bandho Chithlia village of Jamalpur Sadar upazila.

2009 + 15 = 2024

Iron pipes, glass bottles and a large number of jihadi books were recovered at that time.

Later, RAB DAD M Jahangir Alam filed a case against them. They were sentenced to 15 years’ imprisonment following the testimony of nine people in the case.

The case was heard on September 13 of the same year after the charge sheet was filed on August 27, 2009.

Then on March 3, 2013, the case was sent to the Special Judge’s Court.

...after which, apparently nothing happened, and now they’re starting the fifteen year count as of the date sentence was passed.

Link

Bangladesh

Holey Artisan attack case to be moved to the Anti-Terrorism Special tribunal

2018-07-27

[Dhaka Tribune] Dhaka Chief Metropolitan Magistrate’s Court has ordered that all documents, including the charge sheet, of the case filed over the 2016 terrorist attack on Gulshan’s Holey Artisan Bakery be sent to the Anti-terrorism Special Tribunal.

Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Saifuzzaman Hiru issued the order on Thursday after scrutinizing the case dockets, according to court sources.

Earlier in the day, Metropolitan Magistrate Nurunnahar Yasmin had accepted the charge sheet and sent it to him for observations.

Sources said the case documents would be sent to the special tribunal in Dhaka on Sunday.

The trial of the case at the tribunal will start after its Judge Md Mujibur Rahman accepts the charge sheet.

Last Monday, police had pressed charges against eight leaders and members of bad boy outfit New JMB in the sensational case.

Six of the accused are Jahangir Alam alias Rajib Gandhi, Rashedul Islam alias Rash, Sohel Mahfuz alias Hatkata Mahfuz, Rakibul Islam Reagan, Mizanur Rahman alias Boro Mizan, and Hadisur Rahman Sagor.

They are currently behind bars having confessed in court their roles in the attack on the upscale eatery in the capital’s diplomatic zone.

Police have prayed to the court to issue arrest warrants against two other ~~bandidos~~ bully boyz ‐ Shariful Islam Khalid and Mamunur Rashid Ripon ‐ who are still on the run, and reportedly hiding in India.

The Sherlocks had also dropped former North South University teacher Hasnat Reza Karim’s name from the charge sheet as the charges against him could not be proved.

However,
facts are stubborn; statistics are more pliable...
Metropolitan Magistrate Fahad Bin Amin denied his bail plea on Thursday.

Link

Bangladesh

Gunfight between AL factions leaves 1 dead, 5 injured in Dhaka

2018-04-23

[Dhaka Tribune] A man has been rubbed out and at least five others sustained bullet wounds in a pie fight between two rival Awami League factions at Bhatara’s Beraid Union in Dhaka.

The incident took place in front of Crown Cement factory on the bank of Balu River under Bhatara cop shoppe around 4:30pm on Sunday, police said.

The dear departed was identified as Kamruzzaman Dukhu, 38, brother of Beraid Union Chairman Jahangir Alam, DMP Gulshan Division’s Badda Zone Assistant Commissioner Ashraful Karim told the Dhaka Tribune.

Jahangir is also the general secretary of the ruling party’s Badda thana unit.

Ashraful said the two factions that clashed belonged to Jahangir and local MP AKM Rahmatullah, two rivals who have been at loggerheads over the upcoming Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC) polls for a while now.

He said the body of the dear departed was taken to Apollo Hospital. The injured were also admitted to the same hospital. "The situation is under control now," he added.

Jahangir claimed that Rahmatullah’s supporters had attacked and shot his brother Kamruzzaman when he went to the cement factory to supply raw materials. "When my other brothers and uncles went there, the attackers also shot at them. At least eight to 10 others have also been shot at that time," he alleged.

Link

Bangladesh

Panic in the hills with call to join Arakan Army

2018-03-31

[Dhaka Tribune] Panic has spread in the hilly areas of Bandarban after Myanmar-based Arakan Army (AA) sent letters to Bangladeshi youths, inviting them to join the turban group.

Youths living in remote areas of Thanchi and Ali Kadam, bordering Myanmar, received these letters recently.

Panicking, they are now reportedly taking shelter in Thanchi upazila.

Thanchi Upazila Nirbahi Officer (UNO) Jahangir Alam confirmed receipt of the letters.

Written in Burmese, the letter asked old members of the group to participate in training slated for March 31. It also asked the members to recruit young people from the hilly areas.

Following the letter, the local administration, public representatives, and security forces, held a meeting on Tuesday with Thanchi UNO, Jahangir Alam, in the chair. A number of youths of the border areas also reportedly attended the meeting. The meeting asked the youths not to panic.

Locals in the border areas said some Marma youths have already joined the group out of fear, while others have escaped their homes.

Thanchi Upazila Chairman Kwa Hla Ching Marma said: "The letter invited Bangladeshi youths to join the Arakan Army. We have already held a meeting on the matter."

"But the location of the Arakan Army camp was not mentioned in the letter. We also do not know where the camp is. We have directed all to be alert."

Anupam Marma is a local journalist of Thanchi who knows Burmese. He said: "According to the letter, a 15-day training will begin on March 31. Those interested are requested to come to the camp by March 28. At the end of the letter it mentioned Camp-2, Battalion No 215, Rakhine Army."

He said many young people have already taken shelter with their relatives out of fear.

Thanchi cop shoppe Officer-in-Charge (OC) Abdus Sattar said: "I have heard about the letter. But I did not attend the meeting held this week on behalf of the administration. The Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) is looking into the matter since these are border areas."

Bolipara BGB Battalion acting captain Major Ruhul Amin said: "We have already held a meeting with the administration. Our battalion members remain alert on the border s."

"We have already discussed the issue. There is no need to worry about it," said Bandarban Deputy Commissioner Md Aslam Hossain.

Link

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