Dinah Lord

Green Crescent chief detained.

Remember Green Crescent, that Bangladesh based, UK funded charity busted with weapons, explosives and jihad literature?   Well, it looks like they finally rounded up Faisal Mostafa, the charity's head.  And we know  this isn't Faisal's first terror rodeo.

Dr Mostafa, who is married with three children, was given a suspended sentence for trying to board a plane at Manchester airport last November with a pistol in his suitcase. He was also cleared of conspiracy to cause explosions in 2002, following a surveillance operation in Birmingham in 2000. His co-defendant on that occasion, Moinul Abedin, 27, was jailed for 20 years after being found guilty of planning a wave of terror across Britain with home-made bombs.

Mostafa, a Manchester Metropolitan University chemistry graduate, was cleared in 1996 of involvement in a terrorist bomb plot but was found guilty of illegally possessing a firearm found at his home, which was used to kill a man in Moss Side. He was given a four year prison sentence.

About his arrest.  From The Independent:

Police detained the head of a British-based charity today that funded an Islamic school in southern Bangladesh where authorities seized weapons and explosives, an official said.

Faisal Mustafa — who runs the London-based Green Crescent charity — was held for questioning along with an aide, said A.K. Azad, a spokesman for the Rapid Action Battalion, a special anti-crime force.

Mustafa's family earlier told local media he had been missing since 26 March, two days after police raided the Green Crescent Madrassah and Orphanage, about 100 kilometers (60 miles) south of the capital of Dhaka.

Police found a large cache of guns, bullets and bomb-making materials as well as books on jihad, or holy war, at the school and arrested four employees, including a religious teacher, said Mamunur Rashid, an officer who led last month's raid.

British terror suspect cleared of two UK bomb plots on run after police raid his orphanage which was 'training Islamic militants'

<-- The Green Crescent charity. 

From the Daily Mail.

A British chemistry graduate accused of plotting terrorist attacks has been running a training camp and arms factory  for Islamic militants under the guise of a charity orphanage, it has been alleged.

Dr Faisal Mostafa ran a charity providing humanitarian aid to children and families in Bangladesh and Pakistan, even though he was twice cleared of involvement in alleged bomb-making factories and terror attacks in Britain.

Bangladeshi security forces allege that an orphanage run by Mostafa's Stockport-based charity Green Crescent was being used to train Jihadist extremists 'in line with Bin Laden'.

It has emerged that the father-of-three was also given a suspended sentence for trying to board a plane with a pistol in his suitcase last year. The Charity Commission said tonight it was investigating the allegations, which it said it was taking very seriously.

the weapons cache found at the charity  -->

On Monday Bangladeshi security forces raided the orphanage and attached Muslim school on the remote island of Bhola in South Bangladesh.

They discovered explosives to make 'several hundred' grenades, as well as ammunition, remote control devices and radical Islamic books.

A teacher and three caretakers have been arrested but Mostafa, who is in his mid-40s, is believed to be on the run in Bangladesh.

Lt Col Munir Haque, an officer involved in the operation by the Rapid Action Battalion, said: 'We found small arms – about nine or 10 in total – plus equipment to make small arms, about 3,000 rounds of ammunition, two walkie-talkies, two remote control devices and four sets of army uniforms.

'We also found enough explosives and other equipment to make several hundred grenades. We found some ordinary Islamic books, but others that are in line with extremists like Bin Laden.'

He said that there were about 11 children between the ages of 7 and 8 at the compound at the time of the raid, but no other adults.

There's more at the link...and as always the best part of this story can be found in the comments.

From matelot:  Come on, we are tough on terrorism, they've just arrested four fishermen on terrorism charges, they were using laser beams to frighten wild ducks from there lines, then they dragged that deranged heckler from the labour conference, how much tougher do you want them to be, you see if you go after a Muslim with firearms and explosives, you infringe his human rites, and you might get hurt, which infringes the police human rites, you can't win

From Ernest:  He was found in possession of bomb making material, and let off. He was caught trying to board a plan with a firearm, and all he got was 56 days in jail. The UK government are really getting tough on terrorism, aren't they?

From Eliza:  Well we would not want to appear prejudiced or suspicious would we.....?  Poor man being frightened and running away.  Expect when he is found it will be us paying compensation.

From Ger:  It is obviously insulting to the rest of us and completely ridiculous to consider this maniac as "British".

Bangladesh: The Eunuch vote

For the first time ever Eunuchs will be able to cast their votes and it's causing headaches at the polls.  Bangladesh, being a Muslim country, requires separate voting facilities for men and women and Muslim poll workers don't know which side to put the eunuchs on.  No doubt Mohammed is twirling in his grave.

Bangladesh Eunuchs to vote in first elections.

Among the millions of new voters in Monday's Bangladeshi elections will be some 100,000 hijras -- cross-dressing, pre- and post-operative transsexuals -- allowed to cast ballots for the first time.

The male-to-female transsexuals are among 32 percent of the impoverished nation's 81 million voters for whom participating in the elections, the first since 2001, will be a new experience.

Hijra social worker Joya Shikder, herself a transsexual, said the move spelled a positive change for the conservative Muslim country.

"We've always been overlooked in previous elections," Shikder said. "It's exciting to be given this recognition but the authorities have stopped short of acknowledging us as a third gender."

The move to give hijras the vote has been applauded by human rights activists but has caused a headache for Election Commission officials who create separate lines for male and female voters at every polling booth.

"You just cannot just class us into men and women by looking at our faces, bodies and expressions," Shikder said.

Election Commission spokesman S.M. Asaduzzaman said officials were still trying to figure out exactly how hijras would cast their votes on Monday.

"It's a difficult one for us. We have only two queues, one for men and another for women," he said.

"We thought long and hard about it but eventually decided that hijras must go to the line that we think suits them best. The more feminine ones will be in the ladies' line while the ones who seem more manly will be in with the men."

Bangladesh: 3 arrested, bombmaking materials seized.

Do I even have to ask you to guess their religion???

Police in northern Bangladesh arrested three suspected militants tied to a banned Islamic group and seized a large cache of bomb-making materials, an official said Thursday.

The raids came days before nationalelections to restore democracy, though police said it was unclear whether the explosives were part of any plot to disrupt the polls.

Officials seized at least 50 casings of grenades, explosives, batteries and books on jihad, or holy war, according to S.M. Muniruzzaman, police chief of the Gaibandha district where the arrests were made in separate raids Wednesday and Thursday.

He said the suspects are members of the Jumatul Mujahedeen Bangladesh group, which has been blamed for bombings in Bangladesh in recent years.

Jumatul Mujahedeen Bangladesh has been blamed for more than 400 small bombs that exploded across Bangladesh on one day in 2005, killing two people and wounding dozens.

The group wants to establish Islamic rule in Bangladesh, a Muslim-majority nation of 150 million people that is ruled by secular laws. Muniruzzaman said it was not clear immediately if the militants were preparing to disrupt the national elections slated for Monday after nearly two years of military-backed interim rule.

Let me make it clear to you governor, they WERE indeed preparing to disrupt the national elections.

Is Bangladesh the new Mumbai?

Looks like it very well could be.  A local terror expert opines that it is a "safe haven for terrorists and gun smugglers, riddled with al Qaeda operatives, Facebook Jihadis, and large numbers of migrant workers returning from Saudi Arabian construction sites full of Wahhabism."

General elections are scheduled for December 29 and it is feared that radical Islamists, Jemaat-e-Islami will assume power.

Here's how they flex their muscle in a country that is 80% Muslim by killing the Moderates.

Last month members of a student wing of the party allegedly threatened to burn alive against the producers of a university play which supposedly defamed the Prophet Mohammed.

This month, Nurul Islam, president of the Bangladesh Trade Union Kendra and a "politician who had devoted his life to the promotion of democracy" was killed in his home by a fire of suspicious origin.  A fire similar to the one directed at former president, B. Choudhury in 2006.  You-know-who is suspected in that case, too.

Remember Benazir Bhutto and how the Islamists bumped her off?  In Bangladesh, female presidential candidates, AL President Sheikh Hasina Wajed and and BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia are believed to be at risk for their "secular ideas" and "progressivism".  Who's threatening them despite both pols playing the Islam card for all its worth?

Guess who?  "Extremist groups" including Harkat-ul-Jihad-al Islami (Huji) and Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh - or what we call terrorists.

CNN-IBN, India-based English-language news channel, yesterday reported, “Indian intelligence agencies have warned Bangladesh that a six-member suicide squad of the banned Harkat-ul-Jehad-al-Islami (Huji) has been trained to assassinate Hasina.”

It added that an officer of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence operating under the name Ehetesham has trained the Huji men for two months at Kaliganj in Satkhira.

What will be the next stop on the Muslim terror train???