11 injured over construction of Ahmadiyya mosque in a Tangail village

Dhaka, Sunday, August 8, 2010

11 injured over construction of Ahmadiyya mosque in a Tangail village

Our Correspondent. Tangail

At least 11 persons, nine of them Ahmadiyyas and two Sunnis, were injured and 15 houses of Kadiani families were damaged when the Sunni neighbours resisted the construction of an Ahmadiyya mosque at Chantara, a village under Jamuria union in Ghatail upazila, about 50 kilometres north of Tangail district town Saturday afternoon.

Police said that two poultry farms, each having 200 chickens, belonging to Ahmadiyya families, were damaged as well.

According to the police it all began when the Sunni neighbours gathered there and attacked the Ahmadiyyas with sticks and spears and resisted the construction of their mosque in the locality.

Ghatail police station officer-in-charge Mominul Islam told New Age that the incident took the place after the Ahmadiyyas had laid the corner stone of the mosque in the presence of their leaders from Dhaka.

Police said that the Ahmadiyyas tried to defend themselves when two Sunnis received minor injuries.

Among the injured were five central leaders of Ahmadiyyas, one of them seriously, who had gone to the village for laying the corner stone of the mosque, and four local Ahmadiyyas.

About 30 Ahmadiyya families live in the village.

The additional superintendent of police, AKM Masud rushed to the spot from the district headquarters leading a police detachment and brought the situation under control.

Mominul Islam said that as tension gripped the village, police have been deployed in the area to foil any destructive activities.

URL: www.newagebd.com/2010/aug/08/front.html#17

10 hurt in attack on Ahmadiyyas

	Your Right To Know
Sunday, August 8, 2010	Front Page

Mosque Construction

10 hurt in attack on Ahmadiyyas

Our Correspondent, Tangail

Ten Ahmadiyyas were injured yesterday when a group of enraged villagers attacked them at Chandtara village of Ghatail upazila yesterday afternoon.

The followers of Ahmadiyya Muslim Jama’at Bangladesh came under attack at 2:00pm after inaugurating the construction works of a mosque at Akandapara, local sources said.

The injured were Jafarullah, Mozibor, Halim, Saidur, Arif, Motaher, Abdul Hai and Ibrahim Hossain. Identities of the two other victims could not be ascertained. The injured were sent to Tangail and Dhaka for treatment.

Angered at the Ahmadiyaa move to raise a mosque, the mob attacked them with brick chips and bamboo sticks. They also vandalised several houses and two poultry firms owned by the Ahmadiyya community, police sources said.

A police team from Ghatail Police Station rushed to the spot and brought the situation under control.

Officer-in-Charge (OC) Mominur Rahman confirmed the incident. “No one was arrested and no case was filed in this regard till 5:15pm,” added the OC.

The villagers of the same locality in an attack on June 17 foiled another move to construct the mosque.

Local Muslims under the banner of ‘Imam Parishad’ held procession and rally in the village against 40 Ahmadiyya families and also declared to resist the construction of the mosque at any cost.

Mirza Ghulam Ahmad founded the movement Ahmadiyya Muslim Jama’at (community) on March 23, 1889, envisioning it to be a revitalisation of Islam. Ahmadiyyas consider themselves Muslims and claim to practice Islam in its pristine form.

URL: www.thedailystar.net/newDesign/news-details.php?nid=149886

Ahmadiyyas in Tangail attacked

	Your Right To Know
Saturday, June 19, 2010	Point Counterpoint
Ahmadiyyas in Tangail attacked Mokaddes Ali of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Jamaat in front of his vandalised house. Photo: STAR Our Correspondent, Tangail

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An angry mob vandalised a makeshift tin-shed mosque of Ahmadiyya Muslim Jamaat and the house of an Ahmadiyya believer at Ghatail upazila in Tangail Thursday.

They also damaged the construction materials for a mosque of the community in Chandtara village around 4:00pm putting about 40 Ahmadiyya families into grave panic.

Before the attack on Mokaddes Ali Akanda’s house, several thousand local Muslims led by Imam Mufti Nasiruddin of Ghatail Upazila Parishad Mosque brought out a procession under the banner of Imam Parishad after Zohr prayer. They marched four kilometres to Chandtara village and held a rally at a local school.

Terming the community “anti-Islam”, speakers at the rally demanded that the government immediately declares Ahmadiyyas non-Muslim.

They also submitted a memorandum to the Ghatail Upazila Nirbahi Officer (UNO) urging the local administration to stop the construction of the mosque. Besides, they threatened of a tougher programme if the construction work is not stopped by June 24.

Imam Mufti Nasiruddin and Maulana Rezaul Karim, local leader of Islami Andolan Bangladesh, spoke at the rally, among others.

After the rally, a group of people rushed to the mosque construction site at Akandapara in the village and destroyed construction materials and launched an attack on Mokaddes’ house.

The attackers left the place when Ghatail police reached there, said locals and police.

Officer-in-charge of Ghatail Police Station Mominur Rahman said police arrested three youths from the spot but released them later as they were not involved in the violence.

Police had been deployed in the village to avert further violence in the area.

“I have not filed any case in this connection considering safety of my family and the community,” said Mokaddes Ali.

Abu Taher Akanda, another Ahmadiyya, alleged that although the demonstration had been announced over loudspeaker for two days, the local administration did not take any preventive measures.

Ghatail UNO Mohammad Nurul Alam told The Daily Star that he did not give any permission to hold a rally. He, however, said that the protestors including the Imam assured him of not going past the Chandtara School.

After the rally, Mufti Nasiruddin told The Daily Star that the local administration had assured them of not allowing any Ahmadiyya mosque in the village and that the construction materials for the mosque would be removed immediately.

URL: www.thedailystar.net/newDesign/news-details.php?nid=143240