Dhaka, July 5, 2006. At 11:35pm, local time, two explosions rocked the office of Weekly Blitz, the independent newspaper of maverick editor, Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury. Choudhury was not on the premises at the time, and he reported that no one was injured in the explosions. Dhaka police and members of the anti-terrorist Rapid Action Battalion recovered material from two bombs that exploded outside the facility and two unexploded bombs from inside Blitz offices.
On June 29, 2006, Mufti Noor Hussain Noorani, self-proclaimed bigot and head of the radical Khatmey Nabuat Movement (KNM), telephoned Weekly Blitz threatening to blow it up and murder Shoaib within 36 hours. Choudhury angered Noorani by publishing an editorial opposing KNM’s attack on the minority Muslim sect, Ahamdiyya, the subject of Islamist persecution, particularly in South Asia. Choudhury reported the threats almost immediately, but the police took no action, later claiming to have “misplaced” the report.
Dhaka Police Commissioner Mizanur Rahman telephoned Shoaib as police gathered at t the bomb site, and asked him why he thinks Blitz would be targeted by the radicals. Choudhury responded almost incredulously “because we are an anti-radical newspaper.” Bangladesh Home Minister Lutfuzzamen Babar, who heads the Rapid Action Battalion, told Shoaib that Noorani would be arrested within the next 24 hours.
Choudhury and Weekly Blitz have been associated with a number of anti-Islamist positions, and Choudhury was arrested in 2003 after he attempted to visit Israel. A Muslim, he had previously editorialized about the Islamist threat in Bangladesh, urged his country to recognize Israel, and advocated interfaith dialogue based on mutual respect and understanding. Radicals, several inside the police, stalked Choudhury for months before pouncing. Choudhury was imprisoned and tortured for 17 months while an American Jew, Richard Benkin, an independent scholar and member of SPME, waged a battle for his release. The battle was often a one-person movement until Representative Mark Kirk (R-IL) joined the fight. Three weeks after Kirk and Benkin met with the Bangladesh ambassador, Choudhury was freed. He still, however, faces charges of sedition-charges which the government admits have no merit-which can carry a sentence of death.
In a second phone call, Rahman told Shoaib that the police would immediately begin providing protection at both Weekly Blitz offices and at his home. Damage from the bombs thus far appears minor, although the damage to the building likely would have been total had the unexploded bombs been detonated.
Benkin is in continuous contact with Choudhury and others in Bangladesh, and can provide additional information. Kirk also has been informed of the incident.
