Terror group HuJI forms political party in Bangladesh

HUJI OUT IN THE OPEN: The terror group has been blamed for several bomb blasts in India.

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New Delhi: The Baitul Mokarram mosque in the heart of Dhaka is widely considered to be the nerve-centre of hardline Islam in Bangladesh.

It is also the place where the banned terrorist group Harkatul Jihad al Islami or the Huji has decided to form a political party to fight the year-end elections in Bangladesh.

Sources in Bangladesh say that HuJI, which has been blamed for several bomb blasts in India, gathered under the banner of Islamic Democratic Party for an iftar party in Rajshahi district on September 8.

Leading the group were two Afghan war veterans – Mufti Abdus Salam and Shaukat Osman Rahmatullah alias Shaikh Farid.

The two men who had trained alongside Osama bin Laden and came back in the late eighties to form the Bangladeshi-chapter of Harkatul Mujahideen are blamed openly in the country for promoting al Qaeda's terror doctrine.

Former intelligence officer Maloy Dhar said, “This would give a big signal to the former Afghan mujahideens that there is a new acceleration to al Qaeda’s operations inside Bangladesh as well as against India.”

Islamic Democratic Party has started mobilising cadres across Bangladesh to take part in general elections in December claiming to continue their "jehad" from Afghanistan to Bangladesh.

With their latest move, HuJI has sent clear signals not only to the polarised voters in Bangladesh but also to New Delhi and Washington that they will continue to operate freely and the military regime in Dhaka will not disturb them to prevent secular forces from coming to power in an election.