The Dirty Tricks of Jamaat Shibir

Since the establishment of International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) to prosecute the war criminals of Bangladesh Liberation War in 1971, Jamaat-e-Islami is desperately trying to foil the trial in order to save its top leaders, who are indicted for war crimes. Last month, one of its leaders, Quader Mollah who has been proven guilty of actively participating and abetting the murder and rape of unarmed civilians, was given life imprisonment which sparked a massive protest, named Shahbag Movement, against the judicial verdict. The movement eventually united the mass people across the country in their demands of highest punishment for all the war criminals and deradicalising Jamaat-e-Islami. With their back against the wall, Jamaat and its student wing, Islami Chhatro Shibir, are now applying various strategies to counter Shahbag upsurge, and to thwart the war crimes trial eventually. Their techniques include smear campaign against the Shahbag youths, exploiting religious sentiments, etc.

1. False Propaganda

(i) A Jamaat-Shibir activist shared the news of a girl being raped in Shahbag, citing an India based newspaper ‘Anandabazar’. However, the news link he shared, http://www.anandabazar.com/7bedeshবাংলাদেশ1.html, was a fake one as you can see from the browser.

(ii) A Jamaat based Facebook page '18-party coalition' posted a news from a renowned news paper ‘Prothom-Alo’ stating that a young man died while he was acting of being hanged as Abdul Quader Molla.

Actually, neither the news was published in Prothom-Alo nor it was a true one. They created the fake news with an image (shown in the left side), photoshopped from the right sided image of the figure above. The actual image was about a few young people, protesting at Shahbag with the demand of capital punishment for war criminals.

(iii) Banglasongbad24.com published a news stating that 'Bangladesh Chhatro League' activists raped a police woman. The picture provided with the news (left sided image of the enclosed figure) was a manipulation of a picture of the police woman, which shows her fainted at duty time on July 7, 2011 in front of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) office.

(iv) A pro-Jamaat newspaper, 'Amar Desh', published a news report on December 6, 2012 stating that the clerics of Kaaba formed human wall to protest atrocities committed against Islamic scholars in Bangladesh.

The attached image is actually taken from an arabic site which mentions that the image is about covering the Kaaba.

(v) In order to provoke hatred towards Shahbag movement, Jamaat resorted to a campaign against the bloggers/activists, branding them as atheists and enemies of Islam. Ahmed Rajib Haider, a Shahbag protester and atheist blogger was also hacked to death by a group of Shibir activists on Feb 15, 2013. They made a hit list of 16 bloggers as well.

(vi) Amar Desh published another news on Mar 4, 2013 stating that Shahbag movement convener Imran H Sarkar is the grand son of a razakar (war criminal). However, locals of the village of his late grandfather protested this news and condemned Amar Desh for publishing such false news [1]. Sirajul Islam, the local freedom fighter commander, and Taramon Bibi, the renowned lady freedom fighter from that area, also confirmed that the allegation against Imran's family is false [2].

2. Covering the tracks

Jamaat-Shibir have got a bag of tricks to deceive the law enforcers while continuing their course of violence. On a Jamaat called hartal day (Feb 24, 2013), Jamaat activists used ‘ambulance’ as a means of transportation to conceal their activities [3]. In the ambulance, they also carried bamboo sticks and illegal leaflets to distribute in different parts of Dhaka.

On several occasions, Jamaat-Shibir men attacked Police with the chant 'Joy Bangla, Joy Bangabandhu' - a slogan used by the Awami League, just to create confusions. In addition, Jamaat planned to engage its low-profile leaders and think-tank of less known like-minded organisations under the banner of 'olama-mashaek' organisation. [12]

Jamaat used to collect students from Islamic schools (Madrasa) and various universities to plan and conduct violent activities. They tried to fool the police, traveling by university buses.[6] This time, they engaged women and children in blocking roads and used them as human shields during clashes with law enforcers in different parts of the country [7],[8],[9], [10].

3. Religious instigation

Jamaat's ploy to create anarchy by exploiting the religious sentiment of the people was uncovered and reported by a branch of Bangladesh intelligence. Jamaat planned to burn the Holy Quran and then to instigate people for violence by shifting the blame onto the Government.[4] [5]

Jamaat patronizes anti-Ahmadiyya elements to bring so-called Islamic leaders from Pakistan and India to wage a hate campaign in different discussions in Bangladesh [12].

On 28 Feb, 2013, the ICT convicted one of the Jamaat leaders, Delawar Hossain Sayedee, on his 'crimes against humanity' and sentenced him to death. After that, an ex-Jamaat MP Shahjahan Chowdhury incited the people of Satkania, Chittagong asking them how they could remain silent upon the death sentence of Sayedee [11].

Following the verdict, Jamaat attacked Hindu villages and places of worship to destabilize communal harmony and to distract people from their sole demand of highest punishment for the war criminals. [13]

Jamaat-Shibir activists also circulated a fabricated image, showing the face of Delawar Hossain Sayedee superimposed on the moon, through mobile and internet. To draw attention of the people who do not use internet, they made announcements through loudspeakers of mosques about this picture in Bogra, Chittagong and Rajshahi. Such announcements instigated hundreds of villagers into taking to the streets, and launching attacks on law enforcers. Several Islami scholars rightly termed the use of this fake picture 'a Jamaat-Shibir ploy' to cheat ordinary believers and to exploit their religious sentiments. [17]

Jamaat-Shibir men are using their Facebook page 'Basher Kella' to spread such instigating contents and to encourage their followers to actively participate in violent activities against the Government officials. Some instigating comments posted on this page include 'picketing is a sport and so start it nearby your house', 'Brothers, show the Dhaka people what a hartal is', 'set up secret radio stations to instigate religious sentiments of the people' etc. [14]

Jamaat-Shibir are not only exploiting print media and internet to spread their false propaganda but also are participating in violent activities through meticulous planning [13], [15], [16]. The systematic way of befuddling people and attempts to destabilize the Government reassure Jamaat's ever known vile and deceitful nature.

References:
1. http://bit.ly/WCzyht
2. http://bit.ly/XAQLq5
3. http://bit.ly/15GeGq2
4. http://bit.ly/WkpkwK
5. http://bit.ly/XAQZNZ
6. http://bit.ly/VXESKT
7. http://bit.ly/XCrQ3U
8. http://bit.ly/ZcBXMp
9. http://bit.ly/WCzSwo
10. http://bit.ly/13C0G1K
11. http://bit.ly/10ztgQU
12. http://bit.ly/YdhowD
13. http://bit.ly/108YxtK
14. http://bit.ly/16jTFm0
15. http://bit.ly/Y9v1An
16. http://bit.ly/12FKXQ4
17. http://bit.ly/ZdOI91