Urdu Daily of Kolkata Succumbs To Anti-India Forces of West Bengal
By Md. Anwar Hussain, New Age Islam, Kolkata
April 11, 2013
Two years ago, Rashtriya Sahara group editor had to publish an unconditional apology to the RSS for allegedly maligning their image and falsely attributing the Mumbai terrorist attacks to the saffron party. It was the greatest blow to the credibility of the Urdu media as it showed that the Urdu media runs on emotions and not solid facts.
This month, another Urdu daily had to bite the dust and the editor had to succumb to the power of Islamic radicalists in Bengal. The editor of an Urdu daily of Kolkata with editions in Hindi, Bengali and English faced similar humiliation before the radical Muslims in the state. His only crime was praising the efforts of Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to bring her country back to secular democracy and control the growing terrorism, sectarianism, Muslim communalism and religious extremism. Last month, the Urdu daily published two editorials on the topic which obviously did not go down well with the supporters of pro-Pakistani and anti-India elements in West Bengal. With the pronouncement of death sentence to a Jama’at Islami leader Delawar Hussain Sayidi and the life sentence to Qader Mullah, the supporters and leaders of Jama’at Islamic in India, particularly in West Bengal unleashed a media campaign against Sheikh Hasina government in Bangladesh and secular sections in West Bengal. A Jama’at leader started issuing press releases almost daily against Sheikh Hasina declaring her an enemy of Islam and calling Delawar Hussain Sayeedi a ‘Zinda Shaheed’ (a living martyr) and rubbishing the court judgment as illegal and an eyewash.
Around this time, a huge rally was organised by 15 Islamic outfits in Bengal in which the speakers demanded the release of Delawar Hussain and even threatened those who were praising and supporting Sheikh Hasina that they will not be spared. They also demanded the arrest of anti-Islam bloggers of Bangladesh.
During this time, the editorials of the Urdu daily added insult to their injury and they unleashed a campaign against the editor of the daily. To reply to his editorials and to reject the views of the editor, the supporter of Delawar Hussain Sayeedi and other former leaders of anti-India outfits Al Badr and Razakar, in Bengal used a rival Urdu daily of Kolkata, a publication of a corporate house. In his press release, he called the editor an ignoramus who did not know anything about Bangladesh politics. He also called him an inexperienced and insane person who was supporting Sheikh Hasina who had framed an innocent scholar and exegete of the Quran Delawar Hussain and was supporting anti-Islam bloggers. Hasina was also criticised for raising the slogan Jai Bangla as it was against Islamic precepts. After some of the readers objected why the views of the spokesmen of a particular party were published in Urdu dailies regularly as they did not reflect the feelings of the majority of the Muslims of the state, the newspapers stopped publishing their press releases issued in support of the Bangladesh convicts whose involvement in rape and killings in Bangladesh in 1971 were proved by the court. But they did not rest in peace.
What happened during one month behind the scenes is not known. Did money power or threats do the work? On April 8, the readers of the Urdu daily were shocked to see two press releases of the pro-Jamaat ideologue of Bengal published in the same daily. These press releases had already been published by another Urdu daily. But pro-Delawar fanatics were not satisfied. They wanted the press releases published in the same Urdu daily which published pro-Hasina editorials. It would a befitting reply to the Pro-Hasina editor if a press release against him was published in his own newspaper. So, under threat or on the order of the owner of the newspaper who is a fruit merchant, the editor had to publish a press release in which he was called an ignoramus, an inexperienced and insane person who does not understand politics and does not know the truth. It would have been a huge embarrassment to a person working as an editor of an Urdu daily who had to publish something against himself, denigrating and ridiculing himself in his own newspaper. Never in the history of journalism has an editor been humiliated in this way. One should appreciate the fact that the editor has not committed suicide out of shame and humiliation.
The Shahbagh protests have erupted in response to court judgments against the alleged mass killers and rapists of 1971 war in collusion with the Pakistan Army. The Indian Army on the request of Bangladesh intervened and helped East Pakistan defend the lives and property of the supporters of Bangladesh. The pro-Pakistan militia called Al Badr and Razakars along with the so-called peace committees killed pro-Bangladesh people and raped women, both Muslim and non-Muslim and destroyed whole villages during the nine-month old war. Ali Ahsan Muhammad Mujahid, one of the leaders of Al Badr was very active during those days. Here is a copy of clipping of the news in Pakistan Observer, November, 1971:
“Badr Day Rally In The City”
The firm determination of the people to defend the solidarity and integrity of Pakistan was reiterated in Dacca on Sunday at a rally held at Bait ul Mukarram in observance of ‘Badr Day’ under the auspices of the Pakistan Islami Chhatra (students) Sangh, reports APP.
Speakers at the rally spoke on significance of the war of Badr in the history of Islam and appealed to people to draw inspiration from it in fighting the conspiracy hatched by India and her agents to break Pakistan.
Slogans were raised at the rally pledging firm resistance against India aggression and the miscreants and the establishment of Islamic society. They also raised the slogans: Crush India and her agents.
The President of the organisation Mr Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mujahid told the rally that theirs was the fight not only for the Muslims in Pakistan but for the Muslims all over the world. He said their struggle would continue until the recovery of Bait ul Muqaddas.
Mr Mujahid said from today (Monday) no library would be allowed to have books written by Hindu writers or pro-Hindu Muslim writers. He said their volunteers would burn those books if found in the libraries to save Muslims from un-Islamic influences.
He said we have to look at the situation against the back ground of unprovoked Indian sheeling into Pakistan along different parts of the border and the killing of those who believe in Pakistan. He added India has alerted their Army, Navy and Air Force.”
Here are the brief descriptions of the allegations against some of the Jamaat leaders of Bangladesh and the court judgments.
Abul Kalam Azad
Abul Kalam Azad, a nationally known Islamic cleric and former member of Jamaat, was charged with genocide, rape, abduction, confinement and torture. He was tried in absentia after having fled the country; police believe he is in Pakistan. In January 2013 Azad was the first suspect to be convicted in the trials; he was found guilty of seven of eight charges and sentenced to death by hanging
Abdul Quader Mollah
On February 5, 2013, the ICT sentenced Abdul Quader Mollah, assistant secretary of Jamaat, to life imprisonment.[80] Mollah was convicted on five of six counts of crimes against humanity and war crimes. He was accused of shooting 344 people. Prior to the verdict, Jamaat members called a general strike in Dhaka in protest of the trials, which it said were politically motivated. Violence erupted in the course of this.
Following the verdict, large-scale, non-violent protests started on 5 February 2013 in Dhaka, with demonstrators calling for the death penalty for Mollah and any others convicted of war crimes
Delawar Hossain Sayeedi
On 28 February 2013, Delwar Hossain Sayeedi, the deputy of Jamaat, was found guilty of genocide, rape and religious persecution. He was sentenced to death by hanging. His defence lawyer had earlier complained that a witness who was supposed to testify for him was abducted from the gates of the courthouse on November 5, 2012, reportedly by police, and has not been heard from since. The government did not seem to take the issue seriously after the prosecution denied there was a problem
During The Liberation War
In 1968, Mojaheed became the Faridpur district president of Islami Chhatra Sangh. In 1970, he took admission at the Dhaka University. On moving to Dhaka, he became the Dhaka district president of the Islami Chhatra Sangh. Around August-September, 1970 Mojaheed became the Secretary of the East Pakistan Islami Chhatra Sangh, the provincial wing of the Nikhil Pakistan Islami Chhatra Sangh. In May 1971, Mojaheed led a group of eight to ten non-Bengali Muslims and a contingent of the Pakistani occupation army to the Hindu villages in present day Char Bhadrasan Upazila. They looted around 300-350 Hindu houses and killed around 50-60 Hindu men, women and children. In October 1971, he was elected the president of East Pakistan Islami Chhatra Sangh. On 17 October, Mojaheed addressed a Islami Chhatra Sangh meeting at Rangpur, where he directed the students to join the Al Badr.
The prosecutors at the International Crimes Tribunal in their formal charge have stated that Mojaheed took over as the supreme commander of the Al Badr forces from Motiur Rahman Nizami in October 1971. On 7 November, the Al Badr celebrated the Al Badr Day. On the occasion Mojaheed put forward a four point declaration. He allegedly stated that he did not recognize Hindustan as a sovereign state. The Al Badr shall not rest till Hindustan is erased from the map of the world. He also allegedly forbade the selling, publicizing or keeping books either written by the Hindus or written in favour of them.
Post War
Mojaheed contested the parliamentary elections in 1986, 1991, 1996, 2001 and 2008. Except for 2001, he lost in all the elections. Between 2001 and 2008, he was the Minister of Social Welfare.
Prosecution
The trial of Mojahid at the International Crimes Tribunal began on 19 July 2012. On 11 December 2011, the prosecution submitted before the tribunal, pressing 34 counts of charges against Mojaheed. The tribunal indicted Mojaheed on two counts of genocide against the Bengali Hindus and five counts of crimes against humanity for killing, forced deportation, abduction, torture and arson.
The Shahbagh protests are a spontaneous outburst of the majority of the people against the judgments as people think that only life imprisonment was not sufficient for those who perpetrated heinous crimes against humanity for nine months. They demand death sentence for them. However, some of the protestors took advantage of the situation and posted some anti-Islam and blasphemous comments on the internet and the government is taking action against them. One anti-Islam blogger was killed by the extremists. But the pro-Jamaat ideologue of West Bengal is at great pains to prove Shahbagh protests a war of Islam and Kufr in which the convicts of 1971 war are the holy martyrs while the protesters at Shahbagh are Kafirs. Those who were killed and raped in 1971 by these so called mullahs were also Kafirs and so they were sent to the hell. And one must accept what they say and should not have a different view.
This is the sad story of the Urdu journalism today. The editor of an Urdu daily can be forced to submission by the religious fanatics into not criticising their extremist ideologies and beliefs. The Urdu dailies have to decide if they will toe the line prescribed by religious fanatics and extremists or will uphold the values of truth, democracy and secularism through their writings without succumbing to the threats of pressure from the religious extremists.
URL: https://newageislam.com/islam-media/urdu-daily-kolkata-succumbs-anti/d/11090