Author: Press Trust of India
Publication: The Hindustan Times
Date: February 17, 2003
URL: http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/181_168121,0005.htm
In the first crackdown on a terrorist
Islamic outfit by the Khaleda Zia government, Bangladesh has banned the
newly-formed "Shahadat-e- Al-Hikma", a group funded by underworld don Dawood
Ibrahim.
"After observing activities of Al
Hikma, it was found to be threat to peace and security of the country and
that's why the decision has been taken to ban it," Bangladesh Home Minister
Altaf Hussain Chowdhury told Parliament on Sunday.
The Minister, who announced the
decision while making a statement on the blasts at a religious institution
in northern Dinajpur on Thursday, said the ban was effective from February
nine, a day after the outfit was formally launched.
Three people, including two teacher
of the madarsa, where the blasts occurred, were arrested after the incident.
Kawsar Hossain Siddique, convenor
of AL Hikma, while announcing its launching on February 8, had said the
outfit was financed by Dawood Ibrahim, who heads the list of most-wanted
terrorists in India and is the prime accused in the Mumbai blasts case.
"The government was determined to
bring to book those who are out to destabilise the administration and defamed
the country abroad," Chowdhury said.
The opposition welcomed the move
saying the government had admitted to the presence of terrorist elements
in the country.
This is the first time an Islamic
organisation was banned by the BNP- led coalition government in which the
fundamentalist Jamaat-e-Islami is an important partner.
Describing, Al Hikma as "a political
party", Siddique had claimed the outfit had 10 thousand commandos and 25
thousand fighters working in the country to bring Islamic revolution.
Siddiquie has gone in hiding since
then, media reports said here.
He claimed that a prominent member
of Begum Zia's cabinet Barrister Moudud Ahmed, Minister for Law, Justice
and Parliamentary Affairs has helped Al Hikma, vernacular dailuy Bhorer
Kagoj reported on Monday.
Ahmed is yet to comment on the allegation
made by Siddiqie.
In the last four years one hundred
persons have been killed and five hundred injured in ten major blasts that
have rocked the country.
Police had issued "red alert" in
northern districts following Thursday's powerful bomb blasts in which Islamist
outfit Za'amatul Mujahidin Bangladesh is said to be involved.