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Radicals campaigning from Buet cocoon

A 40-member network uses social media to misinterpret religion, instigate attack on individuals

Star Report
A radical Islamist network based in Buet has been propagating jihad through study circles and the social media for around two and a half years.
The core of the network is made up of some 40 students - all members of Islami Chhatra Shibir, banned Hijb ut-Tahrir and emerging militant outfit Ansarullah BanglaTeam.
They keep preaching militancy by presenting a distorted version of Islam on Facebook pages, including Slave of Allah,
Bring Back Islam and Collected Documents and Discussions.
Some of the sites the network runs could only be accessed and operated by its senior most members.
A post at Collected Documents and Discussions read, "That Islam is a religion of peace is written nowhere in the Quran or theHadith."
It claims jihad is an "inseparable" part of Islam.
Another post, available at Islamic Notes
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and Discussions, said it is an utter lie that the Taliban or Laskar-e-Taiba has no place in the modern world and the world will be a place for free thinkers. In fact, Taliban are now stronger than ever, it added. The network often targets progressive and proliberation people.
A Facebook post by one of the network members said Islam, not injustice, is all Prof Zafar Iqbal has aversion to. He is propagating anti-Islamic ideologies. It would be a great mistake if anyone believes him blindly being impressed by his novels and stories.
After several students, including Arif Raihan Dwip and Tonmoy Ahmed Moon, reportedly hurled abuse at the imam of the university mosque for supplying food at the April 5 rally of Hefajat-e Islam, an April 7 post at Facebook group Buetian said, "You have beaten the imam, so you deserve punishment."
Buetian is a forum of current and former students of Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (Buet).
On April 9, Dwip, a mechanical engineering student, was stabbed at a university dormitory. The facebook account, which wrote the threat post, was deactivated the same day.
On getting the screenshot of the post, The Daily Star started an investigation and gradually obtained the network-related documents and information from students, teachers, police and its former members.
These correspondents also talked to classmates and roommates of some of the network members, including Hijb ut-Tahrir activists who even openly shared jihadi views with fellows.
Dwip died on July 2. He was unconscious for 84 days.
Mezbah Uddin, a fourthyear Buet student, was arrested on April 17 in connection with the murder. He was one of the network members and had communications with radical Islamist leader Mufti Jasimuddin Rahmani, detectives say.
Tonmoy, a civil engineering student, was stabbed by a masked gang in Gaibandha on August 10.
The next day from hospital, he told The Daily Star that the attack was in
revenge as he had exposed the network's online campaign to the authority.
In connection with the stabbing, a case was filed naming 14 persons, including Buet Shibir President Moinul Islam and member Aminur Islam.
Both Dwip and Tonmoy were activists of Gonojagoron Mancha, a platform demanding capital punishment for war criminals and a ban on the Jamaat-e-Islami and its student wing Islami Chhatra Shibir.
The radicals launched smear campaigns against the youths who organised the Gonojagoron Mancha, terming them atheists and anti-Islam.
A post at Let's Pray Salaat, a Facebook page run by the network, said, "Today you may call the Gonojagoron Mancha a platform against Jamaat-e-Islami, tomorrow it will be against Islam."
Rajib Haider, a blogger and one of the organisers of the Mancha, was hacked to death on February 15. Some of those arrested in connection with the killing confessed to police that they were followers of Jasimuddin.
Later, a post at the network's Facebook page, Islamic Notes and Discussions, boasted about the brutal murder: "A deplorable beast like Rajib has been killed."
The network closely watches university freshers to know who would be easy to recruit and conducts welfare activities like blood donation programmes to win them over.
"They [the radicals) put things in a way that nothing would, at first, seem illogical to you," one of the students whom the network had tried to recruit told these correspondents.
"They [radicals] explained scientific theories in the light of Islam. They said the Jews despite being low in number are leading in the realm of science and technology. Muslims, on the other hand, have no voice despite their huge number, and that they need to be educated and organised.
"Some of the discussions were career oriented."
The student added, "At a study circle, I was given a book written by [controversial Islamist thinker] Maududi. Only then could 1 get their true motive."
In the next step, newcomers are invited to discussions
on the books they were asked to read. The students, likely to be recruited, also have to pass through several brainstorming sessions.
Wishing anonymity, a fourth-year student told The Daily Star he was often invited to the network's programmes. He could figure out its motive after attending a study circle.
Anyone whose loyalty is proved beyond doubt throughout four stages -"supporters", "associates", "workers" and "members" -can take part in jihadi campaigns on Facebook and blogs, according to a document obtained by this newspaper.
The document, titled "monthly plan”, was found in the room of a Shibir activist in Buet. Meant for the network's Suhrawardy Hall unit, it has sections like manpower, recruitment, invitation, meeting, trainings and student welfare.
Delwar Hossain, director of Buet students' welfare directorate, said, "In October last year, the university authority found several jihadi books and leaflets in the room of a Shibir activist. He was earlier arrested in connection with violence in the capital's Mouchak.
"Searching his (the Shibir activist's] computer hard disc, the authorities found a list of 58 persons, mostly Buet students and a few residents of its staff quarters, and learned that they were connected through Facebook and blogs and propagated religious extremism."
The authorities handed over the publications to law enforcers.
Asked about those, Joint Commissioner Monirul Islam of Dhaka Metropolitan Police said, "Most of the books, all banned in the country, were written in the light of the philosophy of the controversial Islamist Maududi."
A good number of members of the network were inspired by Mufti Jasimuddin Rahmani, the spiritual leader of Ansarullah Bangla Team, which was an online group before taking organisational shape, the police official said.
Mufti Jasimuddin was recently arrested with 30 suspected militants in Barguna. He wanted to see Bangladesh as an Islamic country where anyone could be killed for action misinterpreted into blasphemy, Monirul said.
He also said, “The network aims at recruiting Buet students since they are well versed in technology, which it considers necessary for campaigns on Facebook and blogs to instigate violence in the name of Islam.”
The radicals choose online platform as the medium is easy-to-access, cost-effective and provided with the facility of remaining unidentified.
“The network members understand that they can be identified by tracking mobile phone conversations. But law enforcing agencies fall short of logistic support to track them down at online platform," he added.
In June 2009, the Rapid Action Battalion arrested Emranul Haque, a Buet graduate working as the IT chief of the outlawed Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB).
Asked about possible remedies, Monirul Islam said, “There are two approaches - hard and soft -- to de-radicalise such Islamists. Unless they reach the point of no return, they are given psychological counselling so that they can come back to normal life. This is a part of the soft approach.
"Unless there is place for the soft approach or enhanced cultural activities, law enforcers cannot solve the problem only by taking the hard line, which means arresting them."
He further said, "In Buet, most student life is limited to classes, prayers and computers, since there is little scope for cultural practices on the campus."
The Daily Star sought the comments of Mufti Abdullah Al Maruf, deputy director of Islamic Foundation, about the network's interpretation of Islam.
"Some anti-liberation quarters are trying to deceive innocent students into choosing the path of militancy by presenting a distorted version of Islam," he said.
"There are hundreds of holy Quran verses through which we understand that Islam is a religion of peace. A verse says, 'You solve problems through negotiation'."
In no way does Islam encourage militancy, Mufti Abdullah added.