Bangladesh detains members of Hizb ut-Tahrir

Dhaka, Sep 19 (IANS) 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 Anwarul Haq at the Hazrat Shahjalal shrine in Sylhet on May 21, 2004.

Haq, 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.

Source : Sindhtoday.net