After publication of a report in vernacular daily Amader Shomoy, quoting Detective Branch [intelligence wing of Bangladesh police] on Al Qaida kingpin Ayman Jawahiri’s coming to Bangladesh in 2006 and staying at a ‘Guest House’ at country’s capital city.
Quoting a source within Detective Branch of Dhaka Metropolitan Police, Amader Shomoy said, one of the top kingpins of Al Qaida, Ayman Jawahiri came to Bangladesh in 2006 and stayed at a guest house located at city’s Gulshan area. A local handcraft dealer invited Jawahiri to Bangladesh. He [the local trader] established links with Al Qaida through a Pakistani diplomat in Dhaka. He visited Pakistan and met a local businessman named Kashim Niyogi. Later they went to Kandaher in Afghanistan and met Al Qaida kingpins.
Al Qaida terrorists stayed in Dhaka at the guest house owned by a former minister in the BNP-Islamist Coalition government. Bangladeshi police intelligence got information on staying of 18 Al Qaida terrorists at the guest house under the local hospitality of the Bangladeshi businessman. It is also revealed by Detective Branch that the latest statement of Ayman Jawahiri was recorded in Dhaka. During end April 2006, Al Qaida terrorists went to Comilla district from Dhaka and stayed there for some days.
Although in Blitz we said yesterday that we do not have record of Al Qaida kingpin’s coming to Bangladesh, our reporters continued to investigate the matter for past several hours.
According to our findings, Bangladeshi Islamist leaders like Mufti Shahidul Islam, Fazlul Huq Amini etc have close links with this notorious terror outfit. There are even evidences of Al Qaida’s link with a particular media group in Bangladesh, which owns a newspaper and television channel. It is learnt from various evidences that, Al Qaida is investing significant amount of money through this media group, with the aim of establishing a strong grip over media.
Our reporters also found that, Al Qaida started operating in Bangladesh through a number of Islamist leaders like Mufti Shahidul Islam, Mufti Fazlul Huq Amini and Hizb Ut Tahrir leaders. Mufti Shahid, who is a close aide of Osama Bin Laden received huge amount of money from dubious Afro Arab sources and distributed such fund to Islamist militancy groups, through a dubious NGO named Markajul Islam, which is owned by him. Mufti’s daughter is also a part of this network, which is responsible in distributing fund to various people and groups. During the rule of BNP-Islamist Coalition government, Mufti Shahidul’s daughter was caught red handed at Dhaka’s Karnafuly Garden Market at Kakrail area with huge amount of cash, while she was distributing such fund with the help of a Pakistani woman.
Commenting on trip of Ayman Jawahiri’s visit to Bangladesh in 2006, although there was leakage of scoop by Detective Branch of police, till date there is no rejoinder or clarification from the police head quarters on this matter, which will surely stand as evidence of legitimacy of the mentioned information. Meanwhile, there is complete silence by the Ministry of Home Affairs and Ministry of Foreign Affairs both on the news about Al Qaida kingpin Jawahiri’s visit to Bangladesh as well as Selig S Harrison’s opinion editorial in Los Angeles Times on the rise of Islamist militancy and Al Qaida operatives in Bangladesh.
Counter-terrorism specialists feel that, such silence and inactions by the Bangladesh government and authorities will give credibility to the information catered by Selig S Harrison and Bangladeshi vernacular daily Amader Shomoy.
Experts further opine that, Bangladesh was already pushed into uncomfortable situation due to Foreign Advisor Dr. Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury’s anti-US, anti-West and pro-Islamist statements and actions. He [Chowdhury] sent a very negative statement at a program organized by Iran-Palestine nexus in Dhaka, where the Bangladeshi foreign advisor criticized the existence of the state of Israel.
Meanwhile, Selig S Harrison’s opinion editorial titled ‘Get a grip on Dhaka’, which was published in Los Angeles Times on July 2, 2008 was already picked by a large number of international newspapers.
On July 6, 2008 US newspaper The Capital News published a report titled ‘-Qaida affiliate gains strength in Bangladesh’, with the same contents of Los Angeles Times.
The Peninsula Qatar, one of the largest newspapers in Qatar also published the article by Selig S Harrison on July 6, 2008. The article was picked by China Post, an influential English language newspaper. It is widely anticipated that, Selig S Harrison’s article will continue to get published in several international newspapers and news sites.
Commenting on Al Qaida’s expansion of activities to Bangladesh, analysts in Weekly Blitz said, such situation will be extremely volatile especially for journalists and newspapers confronting rise of radical Islam. It may be mentioned here that, Weekly Blitz office was bombed in July 2006 by Islamist militancy group. Bangladesh government deployed police protection, which was withdrawn several months back by the present government in Dhaka.
Weekly Blitz shall continue to investigate the matter of Ayman Jawahiri’s presence in Bangladesh as well as Al Qaida’s reported operatives in this country. We made numerous attempts to get the opinion from the authorities concerned, but none were available for any comment, as it is anticipated that such leakage of scoop on Ayman Jawahiri’s visit to Bangladesh might have put the authorities in uncomfortable situation.
No comments:
Post a Comment