BHOPAL: Perhaps the first Indian module of radical Islamic outfit Hizb-ut-Tahrir (HuT), which was busted by the Madhya Pradesh police’s ATS through the simultaneous arrest of 16 men from Bhopal, Chhindwara and Hyderabad on May 9, has a religious conversion angle too.
“MP Police is a pesticide for Jihadi cockroaches. Probe has revealed religious conversion of seven persons (arrested in the case). And those who brainwashed these men to convert to Islam, included a gym trainer, a professor, a software engineer, a software technician and a private coaching operator. They first brainwashed youngsters to change their religion. After changing religion, the same youths who converted to the other religion, convinced their wives also to embrace the same religion. We won’t allow such developments in MP,” state’s home minister Narottam Mishra said on Monday.
Mishra’s statements came a day after the state’s CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan, while talking about the busting of the alleged HuT module, had maintained that ‘The Kerala Story’ won’t be allowed to happen in MP. As per sources privy to the investigations, 7-8 of the total 16 men arrested so far (five of 10 held from Bhopal and three of five arrested from Hyderabad) for being associated with the HuT and preparing youths for Jihad against the Hindus, had converted from Jainism and Hinduism to Islam.
According to a senior state police official, two key players of the busted module were Bhopal-based young gym trainer Yasir Khan and Hyderabad-based Mohd Salim, who till a few years ago was Saurabh Rajvaidya, the son of Berasia (Bhopal)-based Ayurvedic doctor Ashok Jain. Rajvaidya-turned-Salim was a faculty of pharmacy at a college in Hyderabad, which a prominent politician reportedly runs. On Monday, his parents, blamed one Kamalfor brainwashing Saurabh.
“He is our only son among our five children. Videos of controversial fundamentalist Islamic preacher Zakir Naik further contributed to our son’s conversion to Islam, said his father Ashok Jain.
Fact File
Hizb-ut-Tahrir (HuT) is a radical Islamic group banned in 16 nations, including China, Germany, Russia, Bangladesh and Turkey.