2008-04-11 23:32:41 - DHAKA, Friday 11 April 2008. We have come to know from reliable eye-witnesses that immediately after the Juma Prayer more than thousand members of Bangladesh’s security forces started firing incessantly teargas shells and bullets targeting Baitul Mukarram Masjid and the worshippers who were just stepping out of the mosque after the prayer was over. According to the eyewitnesses there was no provocation from the worshippers - some of who reacted by pelting broken pieces of tiles & stones (ready available at the under-construction block of the mosque) only after security forces started firing bullets and teargas shells. Reliable eye-witnesses confirmed that they saw dead bodies of at least three worshipers at site hit by bullets and teargas cans fired by security forces. The security forces took away the dead bodies to unknown destination...

BANGLADESH KHELAFAT ANDOLON
Head Office: N-70, Ashrafabad, Kamrangir Char, Dhaka-1211 Ph: 7320078 Fax: +880-2-9881436
International Affairs Department: 24/A Joar Shahara, Dhaka-1229. Ph: 9881436 E-mail: khelafat@dhaka.net

PRESS RELEASE
4 Dead and hundreds injured by bullets & teargas shells at Baitul Mukaram Mosque of Dhaka

DHAKA, Friday 11 April 2008. We have come to know from reliable eye-witnesses that immediately after the Juma Prayer

more than thousand members of Bangladesh’s security forces started firing incessantly teargas shells and bullets targeting Baitul Mukarram Masjid and the worshippers who were just stepping out of the mosque after the prayer was over. According to the eyewitnesses there was no provocation from the worshippers - some of who reacted by pelting broken pieces of tiles & stones (ready available at the under-construction block of the mosque) only after security forces started firing bullets and teargas shells. Reliable eye-witnesses confirmed that they saw dead bodies of at least three worshipers at site hit by bullets and teargas cans fired by security forces. The security forces took away the dead bodies to unknown destination. Another source from Dhaka Medical College Hospital informed me by telephone that one devotee injured of bullet fired by police at Baitul Mukarram Masjid died when brought to the hospital and the dead body was taken away by the police without registering and postmortem. In the evening ATN-Bangla private TV channel for a very short period broadcasted report of 4 death of worshippers at Baitul Mukarram by police fire – which they immediately ceased to broadcast - most likely due to pressure of the authorities as well as of the secularist-atheist-leftist-islamist alliance promoted by British intelligence who are behind the direct & ugly anti-Quran move of the authorities which no elected government ever dared to carry forward. Meanwhile AFP Dhaka Bureau, obviously loyal to the leftist-atheists-alliance, has fraudulently circulated old photographs which show some persons with beard and cap distributing fire torches and setting shops on fire. Today no such incident took place in and around Baitul Mukarram Mosque. We condemn AFP Dhaka Bureau for its unethical and dishonest act of circulating lies.

We demand explanation from the current temporary interim government, under which mandate and under whose instigation you dare to interfere with the Muslims Family law which is based on clear and unambiguous verses of the Holy Quran? Most of the members of the Bangladesh ruling elite today have been chosen from secularist-atheist-leftist vested interests who are by nature anti-Faith and anti-religious. About these people Steve Johson has written in the Global Politician on 26 March 2008: “So called seculars, which are generally anti-American and pro-Communists are playing important role in fixing strategies for the administration in Dhaka. Because of such interactions between the administration and anti-American lobbies, moderate Muslims as well as liberal Islamic parties are in danger.” While British government is well-known for her notoriety in global patronization of secularist-athiest-islamist-alliance, local authorities of Bangladesh acting as her mercenaries have let loose the armed security forces to persecute the Believer pious Muslims soon after the visit of the British Home Secretary to Bangladesh. God Willing, those criminals shall be brought to justice in this world as well as in the Hereafter.

for Bangladesh Khelafat Andolon

(Kazi Azizul Huq)
International Affairs Secretary
Cell:+880-(0)-1819-407963
e-mail: kahuq@dhaka.net
Tel:+880-2-7320078, Tel/Fax:+8802-9881436 E-mail : khelafat@dhaka.net