Poet escapes murder attempt

(Media Watch/IFEX) – Leading Bangladeshi poet Shamsur Rahman escaped a murder attempt on the evening of 18 January 1999. The attempt on his life was made by a new, lesser known Bangladeshi Islamic fundamentalist group called Harkatul Jihad. Police arrested three people on the same day and recovered a pipe gun and an axe which […]

(Media Watch/IFEX) – Leading Bangladeshi poet Shamsur Rahman escaped a
murder attempt on the evening of 18 January 1999. The attempt on his life
was made by a new, lesser known Bangladeshi Islamic fundamentalist group
called Harkatul Jihad. Police arrested three people on the same day and
recovered a pipe gun and an axe which were to be used to murder the poet.

According to Media Watch’s information, police arrested seven more
individuals in Dhaka and Barisal (southern district of the country). All ten
people arrested are involved with various madrashas (Islamic religious
schools). They confessed their active involvement in the plot and admitted
that their leader, Shawkat Osman, is a follower of Osama bin Laden, a Saudi
dissident now residing in Afghanistan and blamed for anti-U.S.A terrorist
activities. They said Harkatul Jihad initially listed Rahman, writer, critic
and professor Kabir Chowdhury, feminist writer Taslima Nasrin and Islamic
intellectual Mawlana Abdul Awal as “anti-Islamic”, and decided to kill them
all. The first effort targeted Rahman but proved unsuccessful.

On the evening of 18 January, three young men carrying a small bag went to
Rahman’s house at Shamoly, ten miles from the Dhaka city centre. They went
to meet the poet to ask him for a poem for their forthcoming publication.
Rahman invited them to his drawing room on the first floor of his house.
Following a discussion, the three young men left the room. Rahman’s son
decided to escort them to the main gate. Suddenly, one of the three men
seized him and tried to lock him in the washroom. He managed to escape, ran
out of the house to the main street and started shouting.

Another young man took an axe from his bag and attacked Rahman. His wife
tried to rescue him and the axe hit her right hand. She was seriously
injured. In the interim, as local residents came forward, one young man
escaped by throwing the bag, and the two other men were apprehended with the
axe and pipe gun in the bag. Police picked them up and interrogated them
over a three day period, leading to the arrest of the seven other
individuals.

Police explained that Harkatul Jihad is the local chapter of an
international Islamic terrorist group. It has close links with groups in
Pakistan, Dubai, Afghanistan and other countries in the Middle East. They
are funded by international sources. According to the confession of one
arrested terrorist, the leader of the Bangladeshi group left for Dubai after
finalising the murder plot against Rahman and other writers and
intellectuals. He claimed the organisation recruited and trained members in
several madrashas in Dhaka, Chittagong and Barisal. The group also runs a
newspaper called “Jago Mujahid” from Dhaka. Police raided the offices of
“Jago Mujahid” and collected audio, video and still pictures of bin Laden.

Media Watch recall that last year police arrested the editor of “Jago
Mujahid” for publishing a calender with pictures and speeches of bin Laden
calling for an Islamic revolution in Bangladesh. Police are now protecting
Rahman’s house.

Recommended Action

Mr. Rafiqul Islam Birutttam

Minister of Home Affairs

Dhaka, Bangladesh

Fax: +880 2 869 6667 / 883 144

Copy to:

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina

Dhaka, Bangladesh

Fax: +880 2 814 244 / 811 015 / 813 243