The arrest of the Indian Islamist militant Mufti Sheikh Obaidullah has caused quite a sensation in Bangladesh even with all the obvious flaws in the story surrounding his capture and still unverified claims of engaging in subversive activities across the border in India during the early 1990's in support of Muslims oppressed by Hindu fanatics like the Shiv Sena and RSS. According to his own admission he had maintained links with several Islamist militant organizations including al-Qaeda, Lashkar-e-Taiba, HuJi (B), Asif Reza Commando Force and Harkatul Jihadin Islami Alamin Pakistan but had never actually joined any of these terrorist organizations. He claims merely to be a supporter of their violent agendas but seems to have never engaged in any terrorist activity himself. He looks to have quite a credible and impressive resume of militancy and radicalism with four stints in Afghanistan between 1988 and 1992 but only after the Soviet army had left the country (final troop withdrawal began on May 15, 1988 and was complete by February 15, 1989). It is actually never made clear who he fought in Afghanistan during this period but only that he received training there in certain forms of combat and use of small arms but not in explosives. He claims to have entered Bangladesh illegally in 1995 with the help of one Maulana Fazlur Rahman of Kushban Madrasah in Nadia district of West Bengal. Anyone familiar with the world of counter-terrorism would immediately make a connection between Maulana Fazlur Rahman and the al-Qaeda network of Osama bin laden and this is probably why his name appears in the storyline. According to Indian intelligence sources Maulana Fazlur Rahman signed the first fatwa issued by Osama bin Laden in 1998 against the United States calling for Muslims to attack American interests. These same sources later implied that Maulana Fazlur Rahman was a Bengali which set off a nationwide hunt in Bangladesh soon after the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon. In fact, the person who co-signed the 1998 fatwa has been identified as Maulana Fazlur Rahman Khalil a founding member of the Harkat-ul-Ansar (HUA) and Osama bin Laden's International Islamic Front (IIF) for Jihad Against the Crusaders and the Jewish People. Khalil is probably a Pakistani national as he was a student at the radical Binori Madrassah in Karachi and has shown little interest in Bangladesh thus far. These points are unlikely to be known to many Bangladeshis including counter-terrorism experts who are likely to confuse the name of Maulana Fazlur Rahman with the co-signatory of the 1998 fatwa as was originally intended by Indian intelligence.
What appears even more suspicious about this life sketch is that while Mufti Sheikh Obaidullah claims to be closely associated with Asif Reza Commando Force (ARCF) this organization was only established in 2001 well after Obaidullah had entered Bangladesh in 1995. The ARCF became inactive sometime after 2002 after an attack on the American Centre in Kolkata after which the group is said to have transformed into the Indian Mujahideen but this name appears no where in the present news reports on the arrested Indian militant. The other group mentioned by Obiadullah, Harkatul Jihadin Islami Alamin Pakistan, does not seem to have any existence and no reference is made to it on any intelligence or counter-terrorism websites. Most surprisingly the name Mufti Sheikh Obaidullah does not seem to have rung any bells in India with the press desultorily reporting the story and providing no further insight into his activities before 1995 when he was allegedly involved in subversive activities in that country which had made him a most wanted man. For the reasons already cited the impression being projected about Sheikh Obaidullah seems to lack the same plausibility and evidential basis as that of the three associates of Indian mafia don Duad Ibrahim who were all recently arrested in Bangladesh or of the sponsors of the Green Crescent Madrassa and Orphanage who all had well known and verifiable links to al-Qaeda and other international terrorist organizations. It is amazing that during his 14 year stay in Bangladesh, Obaidullah did not engage in any overt terrorist activities but was at the same time contradictorily making preparations, "for a jihad by organizing Bangladeshi mujahids with directives of Ameer Reza, a leader of Kashmir based Laskar-e-Taiyeba." At no time were his activities detected by the intelligence agencies of India or of Bangladesh nor does it seem for all his efforts was he able to recruit any followers or mujahids to his cause. It was only after the tip off provided by the three gang members of Duad Ibrahim that he was finally apprehended by the police but it does not seem that he had made any efforts to elude arrest or make good his escape from the country while he had the chance (a time span of around one and a half months). It may not be far fetched to assume that this whole story on Mufti Sheikh Obaidullah has been manufactured to provide a credible justification for creating an Anti-Terrorism Task Force in joint collaboration with India. The media and press should look more closely at the contradictions in the official story and try to discover the true purpose and objective behind this quite obvious charade and manipulation of the media. The story surrounding Mufti Sheikh Obaidullah just does not add up.
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