Front Page

Ahmadiyyas in fear as Barguna bigots threaten action today
Staff Correspondent

A state of panic has gripped over 1,000 Ahmadiyyas of Kukua union in Barguna’s Amtoli upazila as anti-Ahmadiyya zealots prepare to carry out their programme, scheduled at noon today, to evict the Ahmadiyyas and capture three mosques belonging to the community.

Meanwhile, the threatened Ahmadiyya families have submitted memorandum to the inspector general of police, local lawmakers, deputy commissioner, and rights organisations seeking security of their lives and safeguarding measures for their mosques and houses.

Leaders of International Majlishe Tahaffuze Khatme Nabuwat, Bangladesh, an anti-Ahmadiyya platform, announced the militant programme from a two-day rally at Shaheed Suhrawardy High School in Kukua union held on March 14-15. Saying that the Ahmadiyyas have no right to live in the country after ‘stigmatising’ Islam by their activities, the leaders urged their adherents to mass at the Suhrawardy High School field at 11:00am today to march to the three mosques to ‘free those from non-Muslim Ahmadiyyas’ and thus say the Juma prayers there.

Our Barisal Correspondent adds: The anti-Ahmadiyyas are making announcement in loudspeakers over the past few days to mobilise locals in favour of their programme.

Abdul Jabbar, a local Ahmadiyya leader said, one Moslem Ali is organising Madrasa students with a view to razing down the Ahmadiyya neighbourhood that accommodates over one hundred Ahmadiyya families and three mosques.

The Ahmadiyyas have been living at Kukua for about 50 years, have been subjected to numerous threats and harassment following the recent call by some fundamentalist Muslim groups in Dhaka to annihilate the Ahmadiyyas and the government decision of banning Ahmadiyya publications, said local sources.

When contacted, the Thana Nirbahi Officer said they had taken all precautionary measures to avert untoward incident.

The leaders of Ahmadiyya Muslim Jamaat at Dhaka said some of their followers have already left their houses while elderly women and children are passing their days amid utter insecurity.

They also said their people in Ambarnagar village of Begumganj thana of Noakhali are facing a kind of social boycott as the anti-Ahmadiyyas have cut them off from the rest of the world. The situation remains the same even after the local administration visited the area.

Source: http://www.thedailystar.net/2004/03/19/d40319012323.htm