Mufti Ibrahim faced two assassination attempts by shooting and running over him in a car. Even then, unable to stop his religious activities, he was arrested without any crime from his home in the dark of night. Four cases were filed one after the other. A Hindu officer brutally tortured his hands and toes with pliers and a knife in DB. Mufti Ibrahim spent a long 16 months in the death cell of the prison, including five days of remand.
Mufti Ibrahim, who fled the country in the mass uprising of students and the public, was subjected to such oppression and torture during the government of Sheikh Hasina. His various institutions and family members were affected in various ways. Even after his release from prison, his life was not comfortable. After staying in hiding for a few days, Mufti Ibrahim, the chairman of Peace International School and Al-Jamea Trust, was forced to leave the country quietly. He recently returned to the country after the July Revolution. He is currently serving as the director of Averroes International School in Lalmatia. He shared those horrific memories of imprisonment and oppression with Amar Desh.
Mufti Ibrahim said that the country's scholars were persecuted in various ways during the Awami fascist regime. They had no political rights. If any scholar was in a political or state-related role, he was suppressed by filing hundreds of cases. Even if someone sat in a spiritual meeting and shared secret information, the police arrested them for being militants, terrorists or saboteurs. At that time, the scholars faced media information terrorism. Even if their mothers and sisters sat somewhere for religious education, they were caught and tortured in police stations and jails. The wives, daughters and relatives of the scholars were attacked there. The issue of militancy was 100% anecdotal. By doing this, they wanted to overthrow, stigmatize and humiliate the Islamic power and silence it by tagging it as a militant.
He said, the goal of the hegemonists was that the scholars should not be popular here. Because they knew that two forces could protect this Bangladesh. One is the army, the other is the awakening of Islam-loving people. Therefore, they deployed all their strength to suppress Islamic individuals, parties and organizations. A list of speakers was made and a separate box was kept in the DB with each person's name. There, they were monitored to find faults and errors in their statements like in the act of the Aam Nama.
Regarding the obstacles to the operation of religious institutions during the fallen Awami government, Mufti Ibrahim said, "I used to run six thousand maktabs across the country. Wherever I went for the work of these maktabs, I would see 11/12 unknown faces following me. Every month, scholars used to come to a maktab in Paribagh to discuss the operation of the maktab. Suddenly, one day, the police surrounded it. I am not aware of any information about torture in maktabs in the 1350-year history of Bangladesh. Because they teach Alif-Ba-Ta-Chha. However, during the Awami regime, I could not run that maktab properly. For this, I have been persecuted a lot, I have been sued by the police. Thousands of children were deprived of education due to the closure of maktabs."
He said, "Under the ICT Act, scholars were sometimes arrested and tortured in the DB. I saw a cleric being tortured by tying his legs and hanging him. Hefazat leader Azizul Haque Islamabadi was with me in prison. He was tortured so much that there was no flesh on the sides of his waist. They tied his hands behind his back and tortured him for six days in a row.’
Islamic speakers and mosque imams and khatibs were not exempt from the wrath of the previous government. If the president did not speak to his heart’s content at a mahfil, he would be harassed there. If the sermon in the mosque was not to his liking, the khatib would be dismissed. Sharing his own experience in this regard, Mufti Ibrahim said that he was a khatib in a large mosque in front of Notre Dame College for 11 years. Suddenly one day, the Awami League formed a new committee and forbade him from coming to the next Friday and threatened the police. Thousands of such imams have been dismissed.
Mufti Ibrahim said that the intelligence agencies had been targeting him for several years. After the Peelkhana massacre, they studied that those who speak in mahfils and media - this power must be silenced. For this, they started targeting them and filing cases. Many were stunned, we would say whatever we could, abandoning the illusion of life.’
Describing the experience of being shot once, Mufti Ibrahim said, ‘One day, on the way to Dhaka, there was a huge noise next to the car in Kanchpur. After going a little distance, I stopped the car and saw that a bullet had hit the windshield and went above the mirror. God saved me that day because the glass was thick.’
Another day, he faced an assassination attempt by running over his car. Recounting that memory, he said, ‘In 2012, I was going from Dhaka to North Bengal. After crossing the Tangail bypass, I suddenly saw a truck coming from the front at high speed. To avoid being crushed under the truck, the driver of my car drove towards the canal at lightning speed. There, I fell 25 feet into the canal, breaking the milestone and trees. The car ended up in a heap. Within two or three minutes, the police arrived. They could tell it was planned. Later, I was taken to a clinic. There, someone tried to give me an injection. But the hospital authorities didn’t know them. I was scared.’
Mufti Ibrahim said, 2021 On September 24, 2018, I gave a sermon in the mosque, "I want an independent, prosperous, and safe Bangladesh." After a while, the intelligence police called and said, "There is a case against you. Why did I want independence? I was always under surveillance."
Describing the background of his arrest, he said that on the night of September 27, 2021, he returned home after speaking on an RTV talk show. Suddenly, his mobile phone received a call from an unknown number. Later, the doorman came to the house and said that two people wanted to meet him. He thought they were people from 'RAW'. So instead of meeting them, he called Triple Nine. In addition, he locked the door of the room well and went live on Facebook. At that time, he raised three slogans, "Free Bangladesh Zindabad, RAW-free Bangladesh Zindabad, Hindustani Razakar Dhardhar Marmar."
He said that at around 2:30 am, an attempt was made to break down the door of his room with a sledgehammer. Everyone in the house started crying. The children became mentally ill after crying. Even today, they have not been able to recover properly.
Mufti Ibrahim said, in fact, 'R' is a casteist. That's why they come at night. In this way, he resisted them from 1 am to 4:30 am. When thousands of people were watching his speech on Facebook Live, at one point 'R' moved away. The DB and the police station arrived there. At 4:30 am, they picked him up in a car and took him to the DB.
This scholar was subjected to physical torture on the way to the DB. In the DB office too, a Hindu officer named Dharmendu crushed his finger with a pliers. This caused blood to clot. It took six months to heal. The officer took another knife and stabbed his toe. The Hindu officer tortured him when the other officers were not in the room. He was handcuffed in the DB. They were removed for a while for prayers. He was remanded for five days after his arrest.
However, he was tortured more in prison. Mufti Ibrahim said about his prison life in Keraniganj, "Even though I was accused of a simple case, I was kept in the hanging cell. I was imprisoned there for seven months. There was no light, no sunshine. My hair gradually started falling out. In the eighth month, I was allowed to go out for half an hour in the morning and afternoon. In this way, I spent 16 months in prison."
He said that there was no case against him at the time of his detention. A fraud case was forcibly filed with a partner from his school. Later, four cases were filed under various sections, including the Digital Security Act. Mufti Ibrahim was released from prison on January 19, 2023.
Regarding emigration, he said that even after he was released from prison, he received threats from 'RAW' 12/13 times. It was also announced that he would be directly hit. In this situation, many people advised him to leave the country. At one stage, he went abroad in the month of Ramadan 2023. Mufti Ibrahim said, "I was uncertain about crossing the airport. For privacy reasons, he did not tell his family about his trip abroad. After going through all the steps and boarding the plane, he told his family. Everyone was crying at that time. First, he went to Saudi Arabia and stayed for three months. Then he stayed in Qatar for a year and in Dubai for five-six months. From there, he returned to the country via Saudi Arabia.
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