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Mayhem at mosque

FAIZUL A TANIM
The Gulistan Shishu Park Jame Mosque beside the Sergeant Ahad police box recently came under attack allegedly from the hired goons of a ward commissioner.
Although the mosque falls under Dhaka City Corporation (DCC)'s ward 32, locals alleged that commissioner Khandaker Abdur Rab of ward 36 made an attempt to take over the area a couple of weeks ago by sending around 500 miscreants to storm the mosque. The vandals damaged the mosque's structure and looted valuables.
According to locals, this mosque was originally located near the south-west portion of the Banga Bhaban. But after the SAARC conference in 1984, then President Hussain Mohammad Ershad wanted it removed and allotted a land beside the Gulistan police box.
In 1994, Dhaka's Mayor Mohammad Hanif gave official approval for the shifting of the mosque and sent it to the LGRD ministry. On December 5, 2000, the space was registered under the mosque committee.
"Ten katha land was purchased for one lakh Taka. In May this year officials from the DCC and Motijheel police station officially handed over the space to the mosque committee," informed the Imam of the mosque.
Owners and employees of nearby shops who pray at the mosque said that on the night of August 15, musclemen of commissioner Rab, commissioner Bashar of Shutrapur, Jahangir Shikder, a known terrorist and owner of Shapna Bilash bus service and local criminal Abul, who also owns a number of buses, attacked the Mosque.
Wielding hockey sticks, they barged into the mosque's premises on buses and trucks by smashing the boundary wall made of tin sheets. After getting inside, they started damaging the mosque with sticks, removed the tin sheds and took away 11 fans, four bundles of tin sheets, grills and iron worth Taka 1 lakh and 170 bags of cement, complained mosque committee members.
Commissioner Rab had an eye on the land for a long time said local residents. On the 23rd of July he reportedly came to the mosque and sought explanation why proper construction had not yet started.
"He started making frequent visits after that and using his influence disowned the original mosque committee and created a new one. He managed to insert his own men in that committee and even locked the gates from inside," said Hasan Ali, a local shopkeeper.
"Rab and his associates want to take over the mosque's space and turn it into a bus stand for Narshingdi, Daudkandi and Bhoirab
bound buses," said another shopkeeper.
Officer in charge of Motijheel police station Rafiqul Islam said they were providing every possible security to the mosque. "If they need further assistance, the mosque committee must let us know," said Islam.
Residents are incensed with the chaos surrounding what should be a holy place.
"This is amazing that commissioner Rab, who himself is a Jamaat-e-Islami leader, is breaking into a mosque. We have heard of nonMuslims destroying mosques but Rab's actions are contradictory to his supposed religious beliefs," said one person who lives near the mosque.
Rab however, totally refuted the complaints against him and claimed that the mosque's area fell under his ward. He also pointed fingers at the mosque committee.
"Of course it is under ward 36 and not 32. The allegations are not only false but those who are making them are doing it to hide their own rogue activities. They are trying to mislead people.
'What the mosque committee is doing is pure business from a place of worshipping. They took the land in their own name and hired developers to build a market there. They will set up the mosque on the 3rd floor and have submitted a plan regarding that to Rajuk. The mosque
is just a initial eyewash. Otherwise even after so many years, why aren't they building a proper mosque?" questioned Rab.
He also claimed that the land acquiring process was illegal.
"The place is not even wakf under the name of the mosque. It is under an individual name. And moreover they grabbed 20 kathas of land instead of the allotted ten. Whenever I ask them to bring a total balance sheet of what they have spent so far, they avoid it. Instead, they bring other documents regarding the land. Why have they cut down all the trees inside the premises? It should remain as a park which it originally was," said Rab.
About his involvement in the attack, Rab said he wasn't even in the city on that day.
"I was out of Dhaka when the incident took place. They themselves might have done it or people who are against them could have hijacked buses and had barged in. Besides, I am not into the transportation business."
The mosque committee members said police protection was not sufficient as they were still receiving threats from the hoodlums. A case is being contested in the court on the affair.