Madhya Pradesh’s anti-terror squad (ATS) arrested four Bangladeshis on the intervening night between March 12, 2022 and March 13, 2022 for allegedly being a part of the Islamic terror organisation Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) that detonated 500 small bombs across 300 locations in the neighbouring country.

The state police arrested Fazhar Ali, Mohd Aqeel, Zahuruddin and Fazhar Jainul Abdin after a raid at a rented accommodation in the Aishbagh area of Bhopal, said New Indian Express. Meanwhile, the Times of India reported that two of the accused were caught in the Karond locality.

The right-wing social media used this news to further propagate Islamophobia.

4 Bangladeshi terrorist of banned Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) terror group arrested from Bhopal in joint ops of Central & state agencies .

Explosive recovered from hideout which is near mosque. ???

— Naren Mukherjee ?? (@narendra52) March 13, 2022

In reality, the press note that is publicly available did not state any specifics as to where the four men were caught. The statement only read that the four men were allegedly planning to create a remote-base/sleeper cell to carry out anti-national activities in the future.

“We found jihadi literature, electronic appliances and like laptop, mobiles and suspicious documents with the arrested and thus found out that the individuals belong to the JMB,” said the police.

Aside from the 2005 bomb-blast, the JMB was also involved in attacks in 2014 and 2018. In 2015,the JMB was involved in pushing large consignments of fake Indian currency into West Bengal and Assam.

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After Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray revealed his party’s new saffron flag bearing the ‘rajmudra’ (royal seal) used during Shivaji’s times and defending the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and National Register of Citizens (NRC), posters threatening Bangladeshis in Raigad district’s Panvel area have emerged, reported News 18.

Maharashtra: Posters of Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) stating ‘Bangladeshis leaves the country,otherwise you’ll be driven out in MNS style’ seen in Panvel of Raigad dist. Posters also shows the pictures of MNS Chief Raj Thackeray&his son & party leader Amit Thackeray. (03.02) pic.twitter.com/0mnNk5b0YR

— ANI (@ANI) February 4, 2020

At a public meeting last month, Raj Thackeray had announced that his party would hold a rally on February 9 to drive ‘illegal infiltrators’ from Pakistan and Bangladesh, out of India. He had said, “There can be a debate on the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) but why should we shelter someone who has come from outside illegally?”

He had also said that India wasn’t a dharamshala (inn) and hadn’t taken the contract of humanity.

Moving from the earlier flag that consisted of saffron, green and blue stripes, representative of Hindus, Muslims and Dalits; he unveiled a new party flag last month taunting estranged cousin Uddhav Thackeray, the CM of Maharashtra saying, “I don’t change the colour of my party to form the government.”

Raj Thackeray has gone from Modi supporter to categorically anti-BJP to Modi supporter again. After supporting PM Modi during the 2013 – 14 elections, Thackeray turned to be the voice of the Opposition against Modi in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, where he fact-checked BJP leaders’ claims and speeches.

With his recent admission that it is necessary to give a reply to the protest marches taken out by Muslims all over the country and his question over Muslim clerics who go to other countries where even the police aren’t allowed, he is positioning himself as an ally of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) after its alliance with the Shiv Sena went sour last year.
 

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The post Leave or be thrown out MNS style: Posters threatening Bangladeshis emerge appeared first on SabrangIndia.

There is no denying that the problem of illegalimmigration from Bangladesh is quite real. Although one cannot view this in the background of the NRC (National Register of Citizens) and Foreigners Tribunals, since that is, from its inception a questionable and even arbitrary exercise and has at its base a historically and politically driven document, the Assam Accord. The question in Assam has been deemed by stake-holders there to be state-specific arising out of the tumultuous and even violent years of the 1970s and 1980s. End result however has been a callous and crude bureau-political exercise that led to a humanitarian crisis of unprecedented proportions.

In “preparation for a nation wide NRC”, many states in India have taken up the task of constructing detention centres within their jurisdictions and the police have started cracking down on suspected illegal immigrants, never mind the fact that the exercise in itself may be not quite lawful or statute-driven. This process of trying to identify illegal immigrants is more like a game of darts, sometimes they hit, sometimes they miss. Not knowing how to differentiate a Bengali speaking Indian from a Bengali speaking Bangladeshi immigrant, is the premise of this game.

Recently, the police in RT Nagar of Bengaluru, Karnataka arrested a 37 year old woman from Bangladesh for overstaying. The woman who had come to India on a student visa in 2003, later on got married and has a child. She even procured a PAN Card, Aadhar Card, Voter’s ID and she applied for a passport, when it came to light that she had overstayed and was thus labelled an illegal immigrant and arrested under the Foreigners Act.If ultimately this becomes a legitimate case of illegal immigration, thendue tothe woman’s ignorance of the law her family will have to pay a heavy price.

Not far back, Sabrang India reported that Bengali speaking workers were facing a likely and informal ban in housing complexes in Bengaluru wherein it was also highlighted how many low income Bengali speaking Indians as well illegal immigrants live in the outskirts of Bengaluru and work as rag pickers and how they are exploited. It is now being reported that the many rag pickers living in these outskirts, who were apparently hailing from Assam and West Bengal have fled apprehending detention or arrests, adversely affecting the dry waste processing in the city.

There are reports coming from other states were police are nabbing illegal immigrants from Bangladesh in the cities of Mathura or Delhi or Agra or Bengaluru itself.

But there is another side of this coin where Bengali speaking population in Bengaluru is accusing the state of targeting them without reason. In a recent incident, Kaustav Bhattacharya, a resident of Electronic City said he was taken to the local police station for questioning simply because his address on his driving license was of West Bengal.

While it is too early to determine how legitimate will such impending detentions be, one can only hope that innocent and rightful citizens do not meet the same fate as the citizenry in Assam.

Related:
Bengali speaking workers face likely ban in Bengaluru apartments, what’s next?
Bangladeshi ragpickers flee Bengaluru; dry waste processing hit
Bangladeshi woman held for overstaying, settling
Bengalis in city say they’re being unfairly targeted

The post The game of hits and misses: crackdown on “illegal” immigrants appeared first on SabrangIndia.

A police official seen pouring water on the body of one the victims who was attacked by a suspected noxious substance on July 25, 2017. Courtesy: Daily Mail

Acid attacks have emerged as a new weapon in communal violence in Britain and the Muslim population, specially Bangladeshi communities living in Britain, have become the primary targets of this aggression.

Frequent acid attacks on Bangladeshi communities have been spreading fear and anxiety among the Bangladeshis living across the Britain. Parents can no longer breathe a sigh of relief until their children return to the safety of their homes.

At least eight acid attacks have been launched in last month and a half in different Bangali-inhabited areas of East London. The latest acid attack was on two Bangladeshi youths at Tower Hamlets on July 25 this year.

The hate crimes on the Muslim community in Britain have increased manifold in recent times, after the terrorist attacks in Manchester and London. Muslim women have been facing physical assault because of their attire.

Bangladeshi community activists in London have organised a meeting to discuss and protest the series of acid attacks. The meeting was chaired by Councilor Maiyum Mia.

Also Read – Acid attacks have become a gruesome criminal trend in the UK

Maaj Selim, a renowned face in Britain’s anti-racism movement whose father was killed by the white supremacists in Birmingham last year, said: “What is going on in Britain right now is not acid attacks, it is racially-motivated acid terrorism.”

KM Abu Tahir Chowdhury, a senior leader of the Bangladeshi community in Britain, said that more than 400 acid attacks have been recorded in London and Wales by London metropolitan police in the last six months.

“Most acid attacks have been taking place in the Newham, Barking and Tower Hamlets areas, where a large number of Bangladeshi people live,” Tahir added.

Asked about the reason behind such frequent attacks, Tahir replied: “The current government of Britain has reduced the number of police officers in the name of budget cuts, which is a vital reason behind the increased number of crimes.”

Also Read – Five hurt in acid attack robberies in London

“During the tenure of former Mayor Lutfur Rahman, 41 policemen were recruited in Tower Hamlets with the council fund, but the number has been reduced to six in recent times.”

“It is quite difficult to maintain law and order in such a big area with such a small number of policemen,” he added.

Former councilor and leader of ruling Conservative Party Dr Anwara Ali said the government has to undertake three initiatives to prevent acid terrorism.

Firstly, the availability and sale of corrosive substances must be controlled. Secondly, strict punishment should imposed on perpetrators and thirdly, awareness campaigns need to be arranged across the country.

President of the UK-Bangla Press Club Reza Ahmed Faisal Chowdhury Shoaib said: “In 2014, some 200 acid attacks took place in London while the number increased to 431 in 2015.”

“According to the statistics, it can be derived that an acid attack has been taking place every 20 hours.”

Experts opine that the rise of extreme nationalism in the changed world order is one of the primary reasons behind the persecution of migrant communities taking place in many parts of the world. As more and more Muslims become the victims of hatred in the streets and underground stations in London, a metaphorical wall is being built between native Britons and migrant communities that undermines tolerance and leads to more enmity.

Republished with permission from Dhaka Tribune.

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