For years, in Weekly Blitz as well in other newspapers and newssites, I have been forecasting on secret strength gaining by internationally black-listed terror group Hizb Ut Tahrir in Bangladesh, which was for reason unknown regularly ignored by the government and various intelligence agencies. It may be mentioned here that, Hizb Ut Tahrir [HUT] is banned in most of the countries in the world, as it has clean record of millitancy and the hidden agenda of this group of foiling democracy and establishing Shariah rule in the nations were totally unmasked when it was proved that HUT had hands behind Bali bombing in Indonesia several years back. In Bangladesh, HUT is continuing anti West and anti United States propaganda and it also propagates anti Semitic notions thus spreading the poison of religious hatred in the country. Most interestingly, this terror group is headed in Bangladesh by a number of teachers belonging to government owned universities. Muhiuddin Ahmed is the kingpin of HUT in Bangladesh, who works as a teacher with Dhaka University, wherefrom he not only continues the notorious activites of this organization, but also recruits and motivates university students towards jihad against United States, West and the Jews. Despite the fact of Muhiuddin’s heneious activities as well his connection with terror groups of HUT in the world, Bangladeshi government turns blind eyes on this man for reason unknown.

 

But, recently HUT came into the headlines of Bangladeshi and international news media when members of law enforcing agencies nabbed a number of its activists along with a leader, as they were spreading jihadist leaflets in the regional district in Bangladesh. According to press reports, Dhaka University teacher and chief of the Bangladesh chapter of Hizb ut-Tahrir [HUT), an international Islamist body banned in several countries, has been detained along with several of his colleagues.

 

HUT coordinator Syed Golam Mowla Hizb and his colleagues, mostly university teachers, were detained Thursday at Rajshahi in western Bangladesh on suspicion of promoting militancy in the name of establishing 'khilafat' (an Islamic state) worldwide.

 

They were detained just before they were to hold a press conference, the Daily Star reported Friday.

 

Police said the HUT men were distributing leaflets calling for establishing a self-styled Khilafat rule by dethroning the present government in this holy month of Ramadan.

 

"We arrested them on suspicion of encouraging militancy in the country... We are investigating their activities," said a senior police officer.

 

Quoting the Quran in its leaflets, the Islamist group called upon Muslims to "take oath for establishing the rule of Khilafat by dethroning the present ruler in this holy month of Ramadan" to unite Muslims and revive their lost glory.

 

Although banned in the West and most Muslim majority countries, HuT has been freely operating in Bangladesh for the past few years. Its website promotes racism and anti-Semitic hatred, calls suicide bombers martyrs and urges Muslims to kill Jews, Bangladeshi authorities say.

 

HUT Bangladesh remained unnoticed for several years, until the grenade attack on then British high commissioner Anwar Chowdhury at the shrine of saint Shahjalal in Sylhet on May 21, 2004.

 

Chowdhury, a British diplomat of Bangladeshi origin, left for home earlier this year.

According to information from different websites, Hizb ut-Tahrir [the Party of Liberation] is banned in Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, and Egypt. It is also banned in Pakistan, Tunisia, Libya, Turkey, and in the former Soviet states in Central Asia.

 

After the arrest of HUT men, the kingpin of this group Muhiuddin Ahmed warned saying, “The Hizb ut-Tahrir will storm the city streets and no one will be able to live in peace on the soil of Bangladesh if our leaders and workers are not released in 48 hours.”

 

He said Hizb ut-Tahrir was struggling to establish Islamic Khilafat (Islamic rule) in Bangladesh and in other Muslim countries and make Muslims free from the "evil influence" of the West, especially the United States and Britain.

 

"We have noted the threat with due importance and are looking into it," Hasan Mahmud, director of the elite security force Rapid Action Battalion, told Reuters.

 

The members of the Hizb ut-Tahrir were arrested on Thursday when they were preparing to address a news conference in Rajshahi city 275 km (172 miles) northwest of the capital Dhaka.

They were carrying leaflets calling for Bangladesh to be made into a sharia-based Islamic state, police said.

 

Bangladesh, a Muslim majority nation which follows a secular constitution, has been battling hard-line Islamist groups which have carried out a campaign of violence across the country.

 

The leaders of the two biggest Islamist groups, Jammat-ul-Mujahideen and Jagrata Muslim Janata, blamed for a wave of bombings in 2005, were arrested and executed in March 2007.

 

Police say remnants of the two groups, along with militants from other organizations like the Harkatul Jihad and Hizb ut- Tahrir are regrouping and may launch fresh attacks ahead of a national election planned for December.

 

Tokiuddin Al Nakhani’s Hizb ut-Tahrir is a proscribed Islamic ideological movement in many countries in the Middle East and Central Asia, but operating freely in Bangladesh since 2000. HT believes in Ummatic concept. As its website declares that :

It aims to revive the Islamic Ummah from the severe decline that it had reached, and to liberate it from the thoughts, systems and laws of Kufr, as well as the domination and influence of the Kufr states. It also aims to restore the Islamic Khilafah State so that the ruling by what Allah revealed returns.

 

HUT’s Bangladesh unit has been under scanner for quite some time, though not branded as banned outfit and presently Bangladesh authority is probing HT-B’s suspected involvement with proscribed Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) and any other forms of terrorism in the country and elsewhere. Following September 18 arrests, Hizbut threatened to oust the government by launching a countrywide movement. The threat was issued at a HT-B meeting in Dhaka in clear contravention of the state of emergency in the country.

 

The outside world witnessed HT-B rise to prominence in 2004 and again in last year’s Muhammad cartoon controversy. The counter terror unit, the Rapid Action Battalion [RAB] find the statements of HUTT-B and JMB are similar in nature, even though RAB is yet to trace HT’s link or involvement in terrorist activity in Bangladesh.

 

Vowing to establish Caliphate rule in Bangladesh, HT’s Chief Coordinator Mahiuddin Ahmed openly threatened that HT-B activists will “stomp the city streets and no one will be able to live in peace on the soil of Bangladesh if […] leaders are not released in 48 hours.”His speech was definitely full of rhetoric and very much in the line of Hizbut’s global Islamic agenda. Mahiuddin Ahmed’s speech was clearly in tandem of HT’s Ummatic agenda and its believe in God’s government. He affirmed, We always want to oust all governments in all Muslim countries in the world to establish Khelafat [Caliphate] states. We have been asking for establishing Khelafat rule in the country instead of the present servile government since our first procession in the country. He also took the opportunity to blame the media for not branding the USA as a terrorist state.

 

Counter terrorism specialist opine that Bangladesh government needs to immediate ban the activities of HUT and similar organizations which preach Shariah Rule or Caliphate Rule in the country thus denouncing democratic system. Moreover, it is also suggested that, any terror group would initially start gaining strength and public support by denouncing the democracy and democratic institutions, which ultimately turns into denouncing the existing rule of law as well other modern laws giving protection to religious minority groups and women. HUT was at the forefront of demonstrating against a proposed bill for giving more priviledges to Bangladeshi women and this group went into virtual war against the members of law enforcing agencies right in front of the National Mosque in Dhaka.

 

While Bangladeshi authorities are paying attention to the activities of Islamist millitant group like Hizb Ut Tahrir and activities of this norotious organization is under strict survilance, it was reported in Dhaka’s press that an underground leftist party named ‘Purbo Bangla Communist Party [Red Flag]’ [East Bengal Communist Party – Red Flag] distributed posters in the country putting names of some of the esteemed judges with the Higher Judiciary in the country, thus cliaming them to be ‘corrupts’. It is greatly anticipated that Red-Green forces are now set to flex muscle in the country, while one [Green – Islamists] is denouncing democratic system, the other [Red – Communists] are trying to defame the image of the judiciary of Bangladesh. It is even questioned that how it was possible for such banned under ground terror group like Purbo Bangla Communist Party – Red Flag in placing thousands of posters on various places in the country including the capital city, when the country is under State of Emergency and roads are always under close monitoring of various intelligence agencies. Some even smell rat in the entire episode.