Islamist militancy group Hizbut Towhid in action in Bangladesh

Notorious Islamist militancy group, Hizbut Towhid [HT] has started open spread of hate speech through its own website www.tawheedprocation.com and established its distribution center of hatred materials at 31/32 P. K. Roy Road, Pustak Bhaban, bangla Bazar, Dhaka. The mentioned website, though claimed to be owned by the publication house of this notorious group, in reality, it is the official website of HT. Read more

Stop Shaking Your Fists and do Something!

I was asked to come here today to talk about the ethnic cleansing of Bangladeshi Hindus: by Islamists—who drive it—“average” Bangladeshi Muslims—who carry it out—and the Bangladesh government—that has encouraged it almost since the day of its birth. That is why I am here. But I grow weary of attending conference after conference where I see the same people shaking the same ineffective fists at the same enemies. What do they think they are accomplishing?

To those who never tire of complimenting themselves for their years of work on the victims’ behalf; to Bangladeshi politicians who cynically claim to be the Hindus’ great hope; and to those international organizations that pretend to carry the mantle of human rights; I ask:

With all of your “heroic” action, have things gotten any better for the Bangladeshi Hindus? Are they any safer today than they were when you started your activity? Has Bangladesh repealed the openly anti-Hindu Vested Property Act that provides the legal framework for ethnic cleansing and rewards the victimizers with the victims’ land?

With all of your “heroic” action, why have Hindus fallen from 30 percent of the population at the time of Partition (1947) to nine percent today?

My God! Have we learned nothing from the Nazi Holocaust? Do we really have to wonder what the end of these sterile actions will be; not for us, but for the Bangladeshi Hindus? Look at Pakistan’s Hindus, who were once one fifth of the population but are only one percent today. Even that remnant is streaming into Indian Punjab ahead of the advancing Taliban; and I saw that for myself in March. Read more

Islamist grenade attack on journalists in Bangladesh

Zahid Al Amin

A member of notorious Islamist outfit named Jamaatul Mujahedin Bangladesh [JMB] charged grenade on members of the press in Gazipur, only 5 kilometers from the capital city on Friday afternoon injuring 5 journalists and 9 police.

According to various information, five militants, three women and two men, of the outlawed Jama’atul Mujahideen Bangladesh were arrested at a house in Khortoil of Tongi earlier in the day with a haul of five hand grenades and bomb-making materials, police said.

Gazipur Sadar superintendent of police Abdul Baten was briefing the media on the arrests at around 5pm when the grenade was detonated. The injured people were taken to Gazipur Hospital.

“Some 100 journalists and police were gathered at the SP’s conference room,” assistant SP Jamil Hasan told Weekly Blitz.

“As the press briefing concluded, and people were leaving, the photographers were taking photos of the arrestees and the seized explosives,” said Hasan.

“One of the militants, Mamunur Rashid, pounced on one of the grenades that were on display for the press.”

Mamun removed the pin and threw the grenade before anyone could stop him, said the police official.

A CID bomb disposal unit came and removed the remaining grenades and explosives, said Hasan.

Police chief Baten said the arrested people were believed to have been plotting attacks at the International Mother Language Day programs. It is learnt from a number of sources that Islamists are planning sudden offensives during February 21-March 26 in Bangladesh mostly targeting large public meetings or cultural programs.

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British Muslim tells court he fabricated Islamist past

LONDON, Feb 9 (Reuters) – A British-born Pakistani man who said he had links to al Qaeda and had sent young men for terrorism training in Pakistan has told a court that he was lying about his past.

Hassan Butt, 28, told Manchester Crown Court he had fed stories to the media and that his portrayal of himself as a terrorist planner who later renounced violence in order to fight Islamist extremism was a fabrication.

He made the confession in December during the trial of a former friend, Habib Ahmed, who was subsequently convicted of belonging to al Qaeda. Restrictions on the reporting of the case have only now been lifted following the conclusion of another trial involving Butt’s wife.

“At no point have I ever been training, have I ever been a jihadi,” Butt told the court, according to a transcript of the proceedings.

Questioning Butt about his past, prosecutor Andrew Edis asked: “So, you were a professional liar then?”

Butt replied: “I would make money, yes.” He had, he said, told stories that “the media wanted to hear”.

The confession will come as a surprise to many as Butt was for years regarded as a leading Islamist who had subsequently turned himself into a proponent for “de-radicalising” young men in order to combat extremism.

He has been widely profiled in newspapers, magazines and in television documentaries, and even met members of the government to discuss his plans for combating radicalism.

In a Reuters interview in April last year, Butt said he had spent a decade inside Islamist factions, during which time he said he had sent recruits to Pakistan. He said he began questioning his beliefs after the July 2005 attacks by suicide bombers on London in which 52 people were killed.

“I financed terrorism, I recruited people to go to terrorist training camps, I myself have been to terrorist training camps,” he said in the interview. “I was involved in the whole world of radical Islam from the age of 16 onwards.”

Reuters does not pay for interviews.

Butt has been arrested five times by counter-terrorism officers, but was released each time without charge.

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Islamist Sharif elected Somali president

After his election on Saturday the young cleric promptly vowed to form a broad government and invited all armed groups in the war-ravaged Horn of Africa nation to join the UN-sponsored reconciliation effort.

Sheikh Sharif, who chairs the Islamic Courts Union (ICU), comfortably won the vote held in neighbouring Djibouti, only days after the Ethiopian troops who sent him into exile two years ago completed their pullout from Somalia.

He defeated Maslah Mohamed Siad Barre, a general and the son of a former president, in the second round of voting, according to an official tally of some 430 lawmakers’ votes.

Sheikh Sharif, a former geography teacher educated in Sudan and Libya, ran in the election as the head of the Alliance for the Re-liberation of Somalia (ARS), an Islamist-dominated opposition umbrella formed in 2007.

The new president, in his mid-forties, was one of the main targets when Ethiopian troops invaded in late 2006 to remove what they saw as an extremist Islamic movement on their doorstep.

But after two years of deadly guerrilla war, the Ethiopians have pulled out with little progress to speak of, more radical groups have blossomed and Sheikh Sharif is seen by many as occupying the political centre.

Observers in Djibouti had tipped Hussein as a possible successor to Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed, who resigned last month after a failed attempt to sack Hussein.

But the internationally-backed septuagenarian lacked domestic support and since he belongs to the same clan as Sheikh Sharif, Somalia’s transitional charter will also prevent him from keeping his job as premier.

Some TFG MPs had warned they would vote for Sheikh Sharif, notably those close to the former president.

The new president is expected to represent his country at the African Union heads of state summit which starts on Sunday in Addis Ababa.

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