Monday, April 18, 2005
BSF submits list of 190 ultra camps to BDR
GUWAHATI, April 17 – The Border Security Force (BSF) has handed over a list of 190 camps of the militant outfits of India in Bangladesh to the Bangladesh Rifles. The Director General of BSF, RS Mooshahary said that the list, with pinpointed location of the camps, was handed over to the BDR in a meeting between the two forces, which concluded in Dhaka yesterday.Mooshahary told newsmen here today that the BSF has also handed over a list of 161 militants taking shelter in Bangladesh and requested the BDR to take action to evict them. He said that the lists were prepared on the basis of intelligence inputs and on confessional statements of the arrested militants. The BDR assured to verify the list and “let us know,” he added. It may be mentioned here that earlier also, the BSF had submitted lists of camps of Indian militants in Bangladesh but so far no action has been taken by the Bangladeshi forces in this regard.Mooshahary said that the general secretary of the United liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) Anup Chetia has been released from prison in Bangladesh but the Bangladeshi authorities have not handed him over to India despite repeated requests. He said that they had raised the issue during the meeting, but the BDR officials said that the matter was not in their hands and the BDR is not authorised to take any decision in this regard.
Tarun Gogoi statements
GUWAHATI, April 17 – Axom Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi’s latest acknowledgement, that groups like Harkat-ul-Mujahideen (HuM) and Harkat-ul-Jehadi-al-Islam (HuJI) are trying to expand their network in Axom, there are reports that Bangladeshi Bangla Bhai has entered neighbouring West Bengal and is planning to cross over to Axom soon. Bangla Bhai is currently on the run in his native country where he is hunted by the local police for involvement in a string of political murders.Despite the Chief Minister’s effort to downplay the threat of Islamic militancy in the State, the sources said that the activities of the jehadi groups within Axom as well as in Bangladesh hold ominous portents for the State.Bangla Bhai is a key figure in Operation Pin Code launched in Bangladesh last December with the design of creating a separate Islamist homeland out of Axom and West Bengal territories. . The JMJB has been recently banned in Bangladesh.“Bangla Bhai is supposed to meet religious leaders in West Bengal and Axom,” the sources disclosed, adding that a sharp eye is being kept on the latest developments. Operation Pin Code, they said, was launched in the town of Mahammadpur, near Dhaka, during a two-day conclave of several Islamic organizations on December 27 and 28. The meeting was convened by Jamaat-e-Islami, Bangladesh. The plan has been masterminded by the Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). Significantly, the ULFA had also sent a representative to the meeting.The sources said that Brigadier TK Baksh of the ISI was the one who explained the nitty-gritties of the operation to all those who attended the meeting. Among them was a Bangladeshi minister. The plan includes the raising of a 20,000-strong army to fulfil the objective of creating a greater Islamic homeland on Indian soil. A large part of lower Axom comes in the ambit of this “dreamland”, the sources said.
Wednesday, April 13, 2005
Sensation over ‘forceful’ conversion, FIR lodged
From a Correspondent
NAGAON, April 12: An alleged incident of forceful conversion of people from Islam to Christianity has been reported recently from Kasalukhuwa, Pani Gaon and Islam Patti areas of Nagaon town. According to reports, a section of pious believers of Islam were enticed to accept Christianity by a shrewd manner.
It has been alleged that one Noorjahan Begum (50), her sons Salim Ahmed, Rajiv Ahmed, Pinku Ahmed, Biju Ahmed and her son-in-law Rafik Ahmed of Chatribari, Guwahati had taken two groups of more than 30 Muslims from various villages of Nagaon to Guwahati on the pretext of training in Jamat. The Begum family lured the innocent ones by giving them sewing machines, BPL cards, Kalpataru schemes and saying that they had received orders to take the groups to Saudi Arab and America for training.
The groups were made to stay at the Louis Memorial Hostel Mission for the Christians at Panbazar, Guwahati where they were allegedly forced to accept Christianity.
The groups, however, raised a hue and cry when they were forcefully asked to accept the Holy Bible, the religious book of the Christians as a part of the conversion.
Among others, 11 persons somehow managed to escape from the hostel and later filed an FIR against Noorjahan and her family at the Nagaon district police station.
The accused are still absconding. Police investigation is on.
NAGAON, April 12: An alleged incident of forceful conversion of people from Islam to Christianity has been reported recently from Kasalukhuwa, Pani Gaon and Islam Patti areas of Nagaon town. According to reports, a section of pious believers of Islam were enticed to accept Christianity by a shrewd manner.
It has been alleged that one Noorjahan Begum (50), her sons Salim Ahmed, Rajiv Ahmed, Pinku Ahmed, Biju Ahmed and her son-in-law Rafik Ahmed of Chatribari, Guwahati had taken two groups of more than 30 Muslims from various villages of Nagaon to Guwahati on the pretext of training in Jamat. The Begum family lured the innocent ones by giving them sewing machines, BPL cards, Kalpataru schemes and saying that they had received orders to take the groups to Saudi Arab and America for training.
The groups were made to stay at the Louis Memorial Hostel Mission for the Christians at Panbazar, Guwahati where they were allegedly forced to accept Christianity.
The groups, however, raised a hue and cry when they were forcefully asked to accept the Holy Bible, the religious book of the Christians as a part of the conversion.
Among others, 11 persons somehow managed to escape from the hostel and later filed an FIR against Noorjahan and her family at the Nagaon district police station.
The accused are still absconding. Police investigation is on.
It’s uncultured: Sarat Sinha on Madani
GUWAHATI, April 12: Former Assam Chief Minister and veteran politician Sarat Chandra Sinha has joined the chorus against the Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind for its way of serving ultimatum to Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi as well as the State Government.
"The incident itself has exposed the bad taste of Jamiat," Mr Sinha said in the sideline of the recent public rally of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) held at Japia village under Hajo Assembly constituency.
"We also have grievances against the State Government due to its inaction and apathetic attitude towards the development of the minority community of the State," said the State unit president of NCP.
However, Mr Sinha condemned the way in which Jamiat leader Moulana Asad Madani served a threat to the Chief Minister, Tarun Gogoi, by inviting him to their rally held at Sonaram High School Field in the city on April 3.
"One can not serve threats to someone by inviting him to his house. This certainly does not reflect good taste and culture," he quipped.
Besides, Mr Sinha said, the threat of Jamiat is also in no way a rational one, as the government was elected by the people of Assam, not by Jamiat’s people alone.
It may be mentioned that Jamiat chief Madani had threatened to overthrow the Tarun Gogoi Government if it did not fulfil its 18-point charter of demands within the next six months.
"The incident itself has exposed the bad taste of Jamiat," Mr Sinha said in the sideline of the recent public rally of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) held at Japia village under Hajo Assembly constituency.
"We also have grievances against the State Government due to its inaction and apathetic attitude towards the development of the minority community of the State," said the State unit president of NCP.
However, Mr Sinha condemned the way in which Jamiat leader Moulana Asad Madani served a threat to the Chief Minister, Tarun Gogoi, by inviting him to their rally held at Sonaram High School Field in the city on April 3.
"One can not serve threats to someone by inviting him to his house. This certainly does not reflect good taste and culture," he quipped.
Besides, Mr Sinha said, the threat of Jamiat is also in no way a rational one, as the government was elected by the people of Assam, not by Jamiat’s people alone.
It may be mentioned that Jamiat chief Madani had threatened to overthrow the Tarun Gogoi Government if it did not fulfil its 18-point charter of demands within the next six months.
Remove Osmani from APCC minority cell, Sonia urged
GUWAHATI, April 12: At a time when the Assembly elections are nearing, the ruling Congress is busy quelling fresh dissidence which has surfaced in the party. In an apparent move to impress upon the Congress high command that all is well within the Tarun Gogoi-led Government in the State, all the Congress ministers and MLAs belonging to the minority community last night submitted a memorandum to Congress president Ms Sonia Gandhi, urging her to remove Barpeta MP Md Golam Osmani from the post of the chairman of the APCC minority cell for his alleged anti-party activities. A similar memorandum, separately signed by 60 ministers and MLAs, was also submitted to the Congress supremo.
In their memorandum, the Congress ministers and MLAs of the State alleged that Osmani was trying to malign the image of the party by speaking against the State Government in several public meetings. Citing the various instances when Osmani was critical of the Tarun Gogoi Government, the memorandum said that the Barpeta MP had openly stated that the Congress Government had done little to better the lot of the minority community in the sar areas of the State, and that it was indulging in corruption. Refuting these allegations levelled by Osmani, the memorandum sought to give a clean chit to the Chief Minister by stating that his Government had been providing land pattas to the people living in the sar areas, besides arranging for drinking water facilities.
The Congress MLAs and ministers alleged that Osmani was trying to incite the minority people to float a new party. The chairman of the Minority Affairs Department of the Congress did not attend the party’s ‘Gramodaya Yatra’ held recently in the city.
It has been learnt that Ms Gandhi had assured the delegation of minority MLAs and ministers that no anti-party activities within the Congress would be tolerated. The matter relating to Osmani’s activities will be investigated at the intra-party level, the Congress supremo reportedly told the delegation.
Meanwhile, Congress MLA Chandan Sarkar, said from New Delhi today, said that he would raise the matter regarding Osmani’s charge that he (Sarkar) was instigating the minority ministers and MLAs against him at the disciplinary action committee of the Congress. "It is clear case of anti-party activity on the part of Osmani," Sarkar said, adding that Osmani should air his grievances at the party forum instead of going public. Sarkar further alleged that despite withdrawing an amount of Rs 14 crore from the MPs’ Local Area Development Fund, Osmani had utilized only Rs 2 crore. He demanded a CBI inquiry into this.
It may be mentioned here that the minority ministers who included Rockybul Hussain, Wazed Ali Choudhury, Ismail Hussain, Nazrul Islam and Misbahul Islam Laskar, and MLAs Aftabuddin Mullah, Sajid Majumdar, Dildar Reja, Sukur Ali, Nazrul Umar, Ms Hussainara Islam, Idris Ali, Sultan Siddique, Nurzamal Sarkar, Sheikh Shah Alam, Ms Sarifa Begum, Samsul Haque and Jamaluddin Ahmed also met Union ministers Pranab Mukherjee, Priya Ranjan Dasmunshi and Arjun Singh, and Congress functionaries Ahmed Patel, Digvijay Singh and Chandan Bagchi and submitted a copy of the memorandum.
In their memorandum, the Congress ministers and MLAs of the State alleged that Osmani was trying to malign the image of the party by speaking against the State Government in several public meetings. Citing the various instances when Osmani was critical of the Tarun Gogoi Government, the memorandum said that the Barpeta MP had openly stated that the Congress Government had done little to better the lot of the minority community in the sar areas of the State, and that it was indulging in corruption. Refuting these allegations levelled by Osmani, the memorandum sought to give a clean chit to the Chief Minister by stating that his Government had been providing land pattas to the people living in the sar areas, besides arranging for drinking water facilities.
The Congress MLAs and ministers alleged that Osmani was trying to incite the minority people to float a new party. The chairman of the Minority Affairs Department of the Congress did not attend the party’s ‘Gramodaya Yatra’ held recently in the city.
It has been learnt that Ms Gandhi had assured the delegation of minority MLAs and ministers that no anti-party activities within the Congress would be tolerated. The matter relating to Osmani’s activities will be investigated at the intra-party level, the Congress supremo reportedly told the delegation.
Meanwhile, Congress MLA Chandan Sarkar, said from New Delhi today, said that he would raise the matter regarding Osmani’s charge that he (Sarkar) was instigating the minority ministers and MLAs against him at the disciplinary action committee of the Congress. "It is clear case of anti-party activity on the part of Osmani," Sarkar said, adding that Osmani should air his grievances at the party forum instead of going public. Sarkar further alleged that despite withdrawing an amount of Rs 14 crore from the MPs’ Local Area Development Fund, Osmani had utilized only Rs 2 crore. He demanded a CBI inquiry into this.
It may be mentioned here that the minority ministers who included Rockybul Hussain, Wazed Ali Choudhury, Ismail Hussain, Nazrul Islam and Misbahul Islam Laskar, and MLAs Aftabuddin Mullah, Sajid Majumdar, Dildar Reja, Sukur Ali, Nazrul Umar, Ms Hussainara Islam, Idris Ali, Sultan Siddique, Nurzamal Sarkar, Sheikh Shah Alam, Ms Sarifa Begum, Samsul Haque and Jamaluddin Ahmed also met Union ministers Pranab Mukherjee, Priya Ranjan Dasmunshi and Arjun Singh, and Congress functionaries Ahmed Patel, Digvijay Singh and Chandan Bagchi and submitted a copy of the memorandum.
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