CHENNAI: Six members of international Islamist organisation Hizb-ut-Tahrir (HuT) have been arrested for alleged anti-national activities, including propaganda against elections and the conduct of democracy, police said on Saturday.
The arrested include a man in his 50s, his two sons and three others aged between 26 and 33, a senior police official said, adding that provisions of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) have been invoked against them.
“What began as a modest effort to seek Muslim support for pan-Islamic rule or a caliphate appears to have grown stronger as more people attend the closed-door meetings,” he said.
“The group was arrested after spreading propaganda against the holding of elections, democracy and participation in the voting process. The theme of the propaganda was whether elections were haram (forbidden under Islamic law) or halal (legal under Islamic law) but the verdict was that elections and democracy were haram,” the official told PTI.
One of the arguments made by HuT members against democracy was that democracy and the rule of law are man-made and therefore subject to change and not perfect, but God’s law does not fit into such a category and is supreme.
Those arrested include Hameed Hussain, a doctorate holder in mechanical engineering who was completing his degree in 2021. He taught engineering at the university. Hussain’s father Ahmed Mansoor and brother Abdul Rehman were also arrested, along with three others — Mohammed Maurice, Quader Nawaz Sherif and Ahmed Ali. All six are from Chennai.
Hamid Hussein posts videos on YouTube promoting his views, and his father, Mansoor, also held private meetings to promote the same causes.
“It all started with an effort to translate the sermons of Zakir Naik (a fundamentalist Islamic preacher who fled India many years ago) into Tamil,” the official said.
Six members of HuT were arrested by the Chennai police (cybercrime) in a closely coordinated operation by intelligence sleuths. “Central intelligence agencies are aware of developments regarding HuT,” the official said.
HuT is a banned organisation in countries including Bangladesh and the UK.
Published May 25, 2024 14:07 IST
