In a significant operation aimed at curbing anti-national activities, the Intelligence Bureau (IB), the National Investigation Agency (NIA), and the Tamil Nadu police have conducted a joint crackdown on Hizb-ut-Tharir (HuT), an international Islamist outfit. This operation resulted in the arrest of six members of the organisation in Chennai, who were actively involved in propagating against the holding of elections and democracy.
Following the recent arrest of three sympathisers from the same family, law enforcement authorities swiftly apprehended three additional individuals on May 25. The decision to arrest them was based on careful monitoring of their social media activities. The operation took place on the bustling and congested Johni Khan Street in Royapettah, where former Anna University Professor Hameed Usain and six others were discreetly taken into custody.
The Greater Chennai police, in collaboration with the Cyber Crime sleuths, arrested Hameed Hussain, an engineering graduate, along with his father Mansoor and brother Abdul Rahman, under the provisions of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA). The arrests were made based on information provided by the Intelligence Bureau.
ராயப்பேட்டை ஜானிஜஹான்கானில் சத்தமில்லாமல் கூட்டம்… அண்ணா பல்கலை. முன்னாள் பேராசிரியர் ஹமீது உசேன் என்ற பயங்கரவாதி உட்பட 6 பேர் அதிரடி கைது… பின்னணியில் அவ்வளவும் பயங்கரம்..
ஏன்டா சத்தமே இல்லாம இருக்கீங்க? @niranjan2428 @devpromoth @RealAravind36 @GunasekaranMu @saravofcl… pic.twitter.com/61IDG64bfm
— நாட்டாமை ⚖️(WarRoom Commander 😎 ) (@Agmarksanghi) May 26, 2024
According to police and IB sources, Abdur Rehman, one of the arrested individuals, had been using social media platforms to disseminate videos promoting the idea of a Caliphate rule. In some of these videos, he expressed opposition to democratic elections. In one particular video, Abdur Rehman can be heard stating, “Allah says you have been created by me, and you (Muslims) are the best society in the world. That means you should fight against evil to protect the good. In today’s world, anything other than Islam is considered evil. Islam is the harbinger of goodness.” He further emphasised that those who accept Islam should present it as not just a religion, but as an ideology and a way of life that sets it apart from other religions. He advocated for propagating the idea that Islam has solutions for all societal issues and possesses the necessary qualifications to lead the world. In essence, he conveyed that anything other than Islam is detrimental to society.
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In another video, Hussain Mnbayee’s Jihadi speech was preached in Hamidi Hussain’s Muslim Otrumai’s (Muslim Unity) integral ID. In that speech, he can be heard saying, “Allah will tolerate all sins, and atrocities. But any one violates the hathees or showed his finger against Islam tenets. Be it an individual, or a family or a group, or a society, or nation or a entire world, he will destroy the entire world.”
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According to intelligence sources, a Hizb-ut-Tahrir propaganda book with a compilation of sixty hadiths of the Prophet that talks about the establishment of Caliphate was published by Classic publishers- owned by Ahmed Mansoor, father of Hameed Hussain.அத்தாபூத் என்னும் பேழை – this is the latest book that has been promoted by the supporters of Hizb-ut-Tahrir.
Law enforcement authorities in Chennai arrested three individuals with alleged ties to the extremist group Hizb ut-Tahrir (HuT). The arrests were made following raids in Tambaram and North Chennai, targeting Mohammed, Kadar Nawaz Sherif, alias Javid, and Ahamed Ali.
Sources revealed that the father of one of the accused, Mansoor, was involved in conducting clandestine meetings across Chennai to propagate the ideology of HuT. The organisation has been known to preach the establishment of an Islamic State Caliphate and the implementation of Sharia law globally, including in India, by overthrowing non-Islamic governments. This marks the first instance of HuT sympathisers being apprehended by Indian authorities.
Officials revealed that the arrested individuals are part of an intellectually driven team that has maintained a covert presence in the state for an extended period. Their activities were largely unknown until now. The group’s operations included propaganda against democratic processes and elections, questioning whether these were permissible under Islamic law. Their stance was that elections and democracy were “Haram” (forbidden) because they are man-made and thus imperfect, unlike divine law which they considered supreme.
Hameed Hussain, another prominent figure linked to the group, has been posting videos on YouTube promoting this ideology. His father, Mansoor, has been actively organising private meetings to spread the same message. Hameed Hussain, who holds a doctorate in Mechanical Engineering and has been teaching in colleges, reportedly began by translating the preachings of Zakir Naik, a fundamentalist Islamic preacher who fled India years ago, into Tamil. This initiative, initially modest, gained traction as the number of participants in these closed-door meetings increased.
The police stated that the arrests were made following evidence of the group’s propaganda efforts, which included denouncing elections and democracy as forbidden by Islamic law. The trio’s propaganda was focused on whether elections were “Haram” (forbidden) or “Halal” (lawful) under Islamic law, ultimately declaring them forbidden.
The Sunni Islamist political group Hizb-ut-Tahrir (HuT) has been banned in 32 countries, including several European nations. The group, which was founded in 1953, aims to establish a caliphate ruled by Islamic law. However, it has been accused of promoting terrorism and celebrating attacks against Jewish people.
In January, this year, Britain declared HuT a proscribed terrorist group, comparing it to al-Qaeda and ISIS. The group is headquartered in Lebanon and has a significant presence in several countries. Despite not being associated with militancy, HuT has a section that is ideologically extreme in nature.
HuT is galvanised by the Muslim Brotherhood ecosystem, which has been active since the 1920s. It is considered a Khilafat movement that seeks to establish a caliphate and implement Islamic law. The group has faced bans and proscriptions in several countries due to its extremist ideologies.
Recently, Abdullah alias Saravanan, a member of HuT, was charged under the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA). The arrest highlights the authorities’ concerns regarding extremist ideologies that seek to undermine democratic values and promote activities that are against the nation’s interests.
The ban on HuT in several countries and the recent arrest of a member in India demonstrate the global concern over extremist ideologies that seek to promote violence and undermine democratic values.
