B`desh police arrest 3 university teachers as terror suspects

Dhaka, Sept 19: Bangladesh police have arrested three university teachers along with eight other people from northwestern Rajsahi city for their suspected links with militant, officials said in Dhaka on Friday.

They said Bangladesh coordinator of extreme right-wing Hizb ut-Tahrir, Syed Golam Mowla, who teaches management at the Dhaka University and nine of his cohorts were arrested late yesterday.

“We arrested them on suspicion of encouraging militancy in the country.. We are investigating their activities,” Rajshahi police commissioner Mahbub Mohsin said, adding that they are charged with distribution of political and anti-government leaflets defying emergency rules in the country.

Police said the Hizb ut-Tahrir men were distributing leaflets that calls for the establishment of their self-styled Khilafat rule by dethroning the present government, who according to them “have discarded the Quran and the Sunnah” in this holy month of Ramzan.

“They have handed us over to enemies. So, we should take oath to overthrow the present ruler this Ramzan and we have to replace them with Khilafat rule,” the leaflet says.

The leaflets criticised sending forces to United Nations Peace Keeping missions to protect “enemies” instead of “turning them into the flag bearers of Islam”.

Two of the arrested Tahrir leaders teach electrical engineering and computer engineering in two private universities in Dhaka respectively while others are students of different universities and colleges.

The Hizb ut-Tahrir men were arrested on their arrival at the Rajshahi Press Club to hold a news conference and later on sent to jail on a court order.

However, the Tahrir leaders had, earlier, told newspersons at the police custody that their outfit was not linked with militancy and that they organised the press conference to clear their position on the charges.

“We want to establish Islamic rule through a truly democratic way and abiding by the law of the land,” Mowla said.

Officials said the organisation was banned in 20 countries across the Middle East, Europe and Asia but was freely operating in Bangladesh for the past several years and promotes racism and anti-Semitic hatred on its website.

Hizb ut-Tahrir was formed by Islamic thinker Tokiuddin Al Nakhani in 1953 in Jerusalem, five years after Israel captured Palestine while its members were believed to have links with al Qaeda.

Source : zeenews.com