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Publication: Sify.com
Date: January 14, 2009
URL: http://sify.com/news/fullstory.php?id=14836944
A bookseller in this Bihar capital was arrested
and the publisher was detained after an Urdu book allegedly made objectionable
references to Islam, officials said on Wednesday. They had received a complaint
last week.
The chief cleric of Jama Masjid in Munger
district, Maulana Kari Abdullah Bukhari, had informed Chief Minister Nitish
Kumar about the book and demanded immediate action.
Kumar directed Home Secretary Afzal Amanullah,
the state minority commission chairman Naushad Ahmad and Patna Senior Superintendent
of Police Amit Kumar to look into the matter.
Based on a complaint filed by Bukhari, the
police arrested the bookseller and detained and interrogated the publisher
of the book Nilofer Yasin, who is the wife of the author of the book, Mohammed
Yasin Ahmad.
"A bookseller Sarfaraz was arrested and
sent to jail and Nilofer was interrogated. Police are likely to arrest her
husband Ahmad soon," Patna Superintendent of Police Anwar Hussain said.
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He said that all of them have been charged
with hurting the sentiments of the Muslim community. "The complainant
told the police that there are objectionable references to Islam in the book,"
Hussain said.
Ahmad's book "Islami Surah Ya Beimani
Ka Panchnama" raised eyebrows among a section of the Muslim community,
particularly clerics. The 154-page book questioned ten tenets of Islam and
the functioning of the Khalifas as well. The police are on the lookout for
Ahmad.