Tahrir 'chief' indicted

A Dhaka court yesterday framed charges against Mohiuddin Ahmed, allegedly the chief coordinator of banned outfit Hizb-ut Tahrir Bangladesh, in a case filed for threatening the public security and sovereignty of the country.

Five other members of the radical organisation, including its alleged joint coordinator, were also indicted in the case.

The court fixed October 24 for beginning of the trial with the testimony of the complainant, a sub-inspector of Uttara Model Police Station who filed the case in 2010.  

Judge Kamrul Hossain Mollah of Metropolitan Sessions Judge's Court passed the indictment order over three and a half years after detectives pressed charges against them.

The long delay was apparently because of the prosecution's not getting the government permission to proceed with the case. 

A trial court needs government permission before accepting charges in any case filed under the Anti Terrorism Act, 2009.

Of the accused, Mohiuddin, 43, is a Dhaka University teacher now on forced leave while Kazi Morshedul Haque alias Plaban, 48, is allegedly the Islamist group's joint coordinator. 

The four other accused are Tanvir Ahmed, 26, Towhidul Alam alias Chanchal, 36, Saidur Rahman alias Rajib, 26 and Abu Yusuf Ali, 34.

All on bail, Mohiuddin, Morshedul, Saidur and Yusuf yesterday appeared before the court and pleaded not guilty.

Towhidul fled after getting bail from the High Court, court sources said.

A defence counsel for Tanvir yesterday sought time but the court rejected his prayer and issued arrest warrant against the accused.

Before framing charges, the court also rejected the discharge petitions of Mohiuddin, Morshedul and Yusuf.

CASE BACKGROUND

According to the charge sheet, a group of Tahrir men gathered at sector-3 in Uttara on April 18, 2010 to distribute anti-government and anti-state leaflets. They were also planning to create panic among the public by using petrol bombs and other explosives. 

Acting on a tip-off, police arrested Tanvir, Saidur and Towhidul from the spot with leaflets and two petrol bombs. Six to seven other members of the outfit managed to escape.

They were committing the offences at the “instruction and instigation” of Mohiuddin, the charge sheet reads.

Mahmudur Rahman, detained acting editor of the Amar Desh, was shown arrested in the case and taken on remand after Mohiuddin and Morshedul during interrogation said he was involved in the Uttara incident. 

On February 9, 2013, DB  Inspector Nurul Amin, who is the investigation officer of the case, submitted charges against the six and dropped Mahmudur's name as his involvement was not proved beyond reasonable doubt.

The IO also dropped the names of three accused -- Shahjalal Bulbul, Mustafizur Rahman alias Rony and Engineer Iqbal -- as he could not collect their full addresses.

REASON BEHIND THE DELAY

After receiving the charge sheet, the prosecutor of the case sent a letter to the home ministry for its permission, so that the court can take the charge sheet into cognisance and proceed with the case.

“We could not proceed with the case due to the delay in getting government approval,” Taposh Kumar Pal, additional public prosecutor of the court, told The Daily Star yesterday.

Court sources said the prosecution sent three letters to the home ministry to get the approval. The last one was sent in March this year.

This newspaper tried to contact the home minister for his comment but could not reach him.

Police arrested Mohiuddin, an associate professor at the Institute of Business Administration (IBA) of Dhaka University, on April 20, 2010 from his Green Road residence in the capital.  He had virtually been placed under house arrest for six months before his arrest.

He obtained bail on May 3, 2011 and was released from jail in February the next year. The other five accused were also released on bail. The home ministry gave its approval on July 26 this year and the court took the case into cognisance on September 6.

The prosecutor cited 16 people as the witnesses.

M Amzad Ali, acting proctor of the DU, told The Daily Star yesterday that Mohiuddin was sent on forced leave in 2009 and the leave still continues. “The university will take final action after the final verdict in the case,” he added.

In a press statement on July 14 this year, Mohiuddin claimed he had no links with Tahrir. He claimed he was not even a member of the organisation.

Hizb-ut Tahrir, a global and pan-Islamic political organisation, which describes its aim as the re-establishment of "the Islamic Caliphate”, was founded by Islami thinker Tokiuddin Al Nakhani in 1953 in Jerusalem, five years after Israel captured Palestine.

Syed Golam Mowla, then a lecturer of management at the DU, went to the UK in late 80s to do PhD and he was there introduced to two Bangladeshis -- Nasimul Gani and Kawsar Shahnewaz.

The three went to several open discussions on Hizb ut-Tahrir in London, according sources in the outfit as well as law enforcement agencies.

After returning to Bangladesh in 2000, Nasimul and Shahnewaz set up an office on Elephant Road in the capital for the organisation's Bangladesh chapter and launched the group's activities under Golam Mowla's leadership, the sources added.

Contacted yesterday, Mowla, now a professor, said he started informal discussion in Bangladesh over Hizb-ut Tahrir but when the origination took formal shape, Mohiuddin was made its chief coordinator.

“I have not been involved with the organisation since the government banned it in 2009,” he claimed.

DU acting proctor M Amzad Ali said, "A case has been filed against Golam Mowla but the verdict has yet to be delivered. He is taking classes and staying at the teachers' quarters. We did not take any decision on him. Proper steps will be taken against him after the verdict."

In its recruitment policy, the urban-based organisation targeted university and college students who are from well-off families. In the beginning, its activities were limited to seminars and discussions in auditoriums or halls. Later on, its presence was noticed on the streets too.     

In a report in 2005, the intelligence agencies expressed fears that the group may turn into an extremist organisation any time and suggested closely monitoring its activities.

In September 2008, Rajshahi police arrested Golam Mowla and nine of his associates at Rajshahi City Press Club on suspicion of promoting militancy in the country. Later, he was released on bail.

Hizb-ut Tahrir was banned in October 2009 as it had long been engaged in “anti-state, anti-government, anti-people and anti-democratic activities in the country”.

Though outlawed, its activists carried out clandestine activities, including holding rallies, putting up anti-government posters and circulating leaflets in different parts of the capital.

Tahrir's name came to the forefront again during the spate of targeted killings in last year and this year as two of its activists were found to have been involved in at least two incidents.

Golam Faizullah Fahim, one of the three attackers who badly hacked a Madaripur college teacher in June this year, admitted to be a member of Hizb-ut Tahrir, police said.

Fahim was killed in a “shootout”, four days into the machete attack.

Besides, Moinul Hasan Shamim alias Sifat, whom police identified as a key plotter of the killing of publisher Faisal Arefin Dipan last year, was also an activist of Hizb-ut Tahrir.

Sifat, who is from Sunamganj, was arrested from Gobindaganj Bazar while distributing leaflets of Hizb ut-Tahrir in 2010. He was a student of Madan Mohan College at that time, police say.

Sifat, who later got involved with pro-al-Qaeda militant outfit Ansar al-Islam, another banned Islamist outfit, was made an accused in a case filed with Chhatak Police Station under the Anti-Terrorism Act. He was arrested in August this year.

On January 8, 2012, Hizb ut-Tahrir distributed provocative leaflets across the country based on a Facebook post of Syed Mohammad Ziaul Haque alias Major Zia, a sacked army person now considered the mastermind behind the target killings in the country.