Editorial: The Bangladesh Observer
Hannan’s Arrest: What Next?
The arrest of one of the most wanted Islamist militants, Mufti Abdul Hannan is important on several counts. At the end of 2003, the Dhaka Divisional Speedy Tribunal found him guilty of masterminding the plot to assassinate former prime minister and now leader of the Opposition Sheikh Hasina and awarded him life term in absentia. Charge-sheets were submitted against him in several other bombing and arms cases. An Afghan war veteran,
Hannan is the founder of Harkatul Jihad, a Pakistan-based militant outfit, in Bangladesh. So his arrest by all accounts looks to be the greatest ever success by the security agencies. We say this even after the police had to their credit the catch like Asadullah Galib, a professor of Arabic of the University of Rajshahi and the chief of Ahle Hadis Andolon, another Islamic outfit. Hannan has both the religious orientation and the guerilla and explosive training. He has been actively involved in the recruitment and training of militants.
More importantly, his arrest might lead to unravelling the mystery behind the August 17 countrywide bombing and earlier bomb and grenade attacks because he is thought to have coordinated the attacks along with Jamaatul Mujaheedin and Jagrata Muslim Janata chiefs Shaikh Abdur Rahman and Siddiqul Islam Bangla Bhai respectively. Already the Harkatul chief has exploded nothing short of an information bomb.
He claims he maintained through monthly Madina editor Moulana Mohiuddin communication with former home minister and now commerce minister, Altaf Hossain Chowdhury. The minister assured him of 'no fear' and move freely. This assurance emboldened him to live in Dhaka and not to flee the country.
Does it make any sense? It surely does. Unless a terrorist of his calibre convicted for life imprisonment is provided shelter by powerful men, a man on the run cannot think of Dhaka as his refuge in his wildest dream. Sure enough, the master juggler of words who earned notoriety by commenting on the killing of a child in his father's lap on a rickshaw to the effect that Allah has claimed what is his property is going to deny the charge. Most likely the mediator will stand in his defence because both men's interest will meet at a point now. However, we cannot forget that the former home minister and the incumbent state minister for home have misled the nation for three and a half years. When the newspapers regularly published graphic reports on the rise of militancy, including the medieval brutality by Bangla Bhai, arms consignments getting into the country and the guerilla training conducted by the militant outfits, both have exhibited exaggerated enthusiasm to deny those. This continued even after the seizure of a truck-load of arms at Bogra and the biggest ever arms haul in several trucks at Chittagong jetty.
The denial game has not quite disappeared. Even the state minister for home is still not sure if there is existence of religious fundamentalism in the country. He said on Saturday at Chittagong circuit house his government is yet to figure out whether this poses a problem for the country. Naivety has its limit! This government is trying to cover up incidents proving embarrassing for it. Should they be considered from the embarrassment point of view? All this leads us to believe that the government has calculation other than the rest of the country would like it to have. The important issue is security of the country and its rescue from its slide into the hands of militants. Hannan's statement implicating Altaf Hossain should be probed into and if there is truth in it, the minister must be brought to justice.
No one is above law and the country.
Edited on, October 2, 2005, 10:44 PM GMT, by ekatturerBangalee.