6 TV presenters sued for imam Faruqi murder:Daily Star

Nurul Islam Faruqi Six TV presenters including two Jamaat men were sued yesterday in a Dhaka court over the killing of Sheikh Nurul Islam Faruqi, imam of Supreme Court Jame Mosque. The accused are Tareque Monwar, a rukan (member) of Jamaat-e-Islami central committee; Kamal Uddin Jafri, a former amir of Jamaat Narsingdi district unit; Kazi Ibrahim, Arkanullah Haruni, Khaled Saifullah Bakshi and Muk
htar Ahmed. They present Islamic programmes on private television channels. Monwar and Jafri are presenters at ATN Bangla and ntv, while Ibrahim, who had been with the now off air Diganta Television, is a presenter at Peace TV of India.   Haruni hosts programmes at ATN Bangla, Bakshi at Rtv and Radio Today, and Mukhtar at Banglavision. Emran Husain Tushar, Dhaka city general secretary of Islami Chhatra Sena, student wing of Bangladesh Islami Front, filed the case with the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate's Court of Dhaka. After recording the statement of the plaintiff, Metropolitan Magistrate Asaduzzaman Nur asked the officer-in-charge of Sher-e-Bangla Nagar Police Station to register the complaint as a regular case and probe it along with the other case filed in this connection. Advertisement International affairs secretary of Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat, Faruqi, 60, was slain at his house in the capital's East Rajabazar on August 27. The following day, his son Faisal Faruqi filed a murder and robbery case with the same police station against eight to nine unnamed persons. The case was later handed over to the Detective Branch of police. Law enforcers detained three people including a woman in this connection and later took them on remand. Emran in the case statement complained that Faruqi was killed by religious fanatics in a pre-planned way as per the conspiracy of the six accused. “Faruqi used to analyse and reanalyse Islamic laws at different discussions, seminars and on the media on the basis of the holy Quran and Islamic history. As a result, a vested quarter had hurled abuses at him and also threatened him with life,” mentioned the case statement. A group of fanatics had attacked Faruqi in January 2010 and tried to kill him while he was on his way to Sunamganj to join a mahfil there. He escaped the attack with the help of local police and a journalist. Later, it was known that the attack was carried out as per a plan by Tareque Monwar, added the statement. In 2012, Kazi Ibrahim had threatened Faruqi with life and also abused him verbally at a mahfil in Trishal, Mymensingh. In the same year, Jafri and Ibrahim had called Faruqi and asked him to have belief in Jamaat ideology. As Faruqi refused to comply with them, the two threatened to kill him and put him on a “blacklist”. On August 22 this year, Monwar at a meeting termed Faruqi a “blasphemer” and called for unity among the attendees to go against him. Haruni, Mukhtar and Bakshi were present at the meeting at Dhaka Trade Centre. The six accused sat in another “secret” meeting at the same venue, mentioned Emran. Three days later, Faruqi at a mahfil in Tongi, Gazipur expressed fear that he might come under attack anytime. The Daily Star could not reach any of the six accused for their comment.