Hizbut Tahrir: The next threat?

The complete blackout of information of the death-sentence of the six top JMB terrorists raised some eyebrows. The media could know only when the sentence was carried out. Recently there was another news that a JMB activist was apprehended and he confessed that about 5000 men are trying to reorganize and start their activities. Was the government fearing a backlash? Most likely so as we have a countrywide security alert now in place to deter reprisal attacks from militant outfits.

And some more worrying sign as well. Today police arrested 22 members of the cultural wing of Hizbut Tahrir Bangladesh while engaging in political activities. From the TV News footage one can see that these youths are like the average kids you see in the streets, no sign of Islamic appearance in them. The police recovered a huge quantity of party leaflets, posters, compact disks (CDs) and party books. Some of the posters read: "Awami League and BNP alliances' sycophancy to the United States and India is responsible for the present situation of the country. A police official commented that a few ideologies of Hizbut-Tahrir matches with some of the ideologies of JMB.

Hizbut Tahrir, a global student organization which is very active among UK (including Bangladeshi community there) established their base in Bangladesh a few years ago. They could so far infiltrate in many high profile public and private Universities of the country and could motivate many talented students (source). Just look at their website, it is more updated and interactive than the websites of the main political parties of Bangladesh. Here is an analysis of the website.

"Describing the last 16 years of government in Bangladesh as ”a failure of the so-called democratic system run according to the dictates of foreign imperialists”. Hizb ut Tahrir Bangladesh has recently published its “Islamic Manifesto” for the country demanding a Khilafah (caliphate), widespread implementation of Shariah law and – perhaps most worrying for the impoverished Bangladeshi economy - for such measures as no foreign ownership of any of the country’s resources. According to its chief in Bangladesh, Mohiuddin Ahmed, the goal is to establish Bangladesh as an Islamic state through “systematic movement”." (source)

Hizbut Tahrir had earlier started a protest against Dr. Muhammad Yunus with Chatra Mukti, a party linked with them and four of its members got arrested. In April 2005 Hizbut Tahrir Bangladesh called for:

"all ulema and Islami groups to work together to resist this propaganda by exposing the true cause of all terrorism in the country which is the secular Awami-BNP politics patronized by the US, India and EU."

Hizb ut Tahrir has developed a considerable support base in Bangladesh and in the Bangladeshi community in the UK,

Its pretty sure that there are some players who are trying to take advantage of the situation that people resent the major political parties because of corruption and confrontational politics. And as the emergency in place they are trying to gather force secretly.

Hizbut Tahrir is banned in many Arab and Central Asian countries and also in Germany. The arrest of the Hizbut Tahrir members is a good sign that the government is noticing. Its high time the Bangladesh government should investigate their activities and take necessary actions including banning them otherwise they will try to negate all the good work this Caretaker Government has done.

Related post: Sunny argues in the context of UK "why taking on Hizbut Tahrir is vital".