Secretary General Golam Parwar interview: Jamaat says won’t be threat to India; but it’s easier said than done

“We can assure the people of India that we will not be a threat to India, that the borders will be stable and there will be no terrorist activity from our side,” said Parwar, the outfit’s Secretary General since 2020. The group was de-registered in 2013 and has, therefore, not been eligible to contest elections.

However, a change of heart for the Jamaat is easier said than done given the organisation’s record in domestic politics, seen as being defined by its hardline ideology, and its patronage of terror networks that have posed many a security challenge for India and within. Officials said the challenge is for the interim government to map its contours of engagement with the Jamaat, which is a banned organisation.

Jamaat chief and then Industries Minister Motiur Rahman Nizami was convicted and handed the death penalty for the 10-truck arms and ammunition haul that took place in Chattogram on the night of April 1, 2004, when police and Coast Guard interrupted 10 trucks and seized extensive illegal arms and ammunition at a jetty of Chittagong Urea Fertilizers. The weapons and ammunition were allegedly meant for terrorist groups, including the ULFA.

Nizami was executed on May 11, 2016, after Bangladesh Supreme Court upheld his death penalty for committing crimes against humanity during the country’s Liberation War.

With the Jamaat since 1986, Parwar, 66, is a postgraduate degree holder in accounting. He sat down with a notebook — prepared with talking points for the interview — and a clutch of Bangla newspapers in the first-floor office of Dainik Sangram, a pro-Jamaat-e-Islami publication. He has two iPhone 15s on the table, and said he has had to change phones due to police harassment. The office doesn’t have much security, except a lone guard at the entrance, where some people wait to meet him.

Parwar was in jail on August 5 when he watched on TV that Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina had quit and fled the country. “I saw the visuals and the news on TV in jail, and the dark period under the Awami League has now come to an end,” he said.

On the violence against Hindus since August 5 – at least five have been killed and there are more than 200 incidents – Parwar denied any Jamaat involvement. “They (those behind the attacks) are criminal elements who have taken the advantage of the situation, some out of past enmity, some local disputes, and they should be dealt with as per law. The authorities must investigate and do justice…according to Islamic philosophy, we don’t believe in violence against our brothers.”

He said that Ameer (Chief) of Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami Shafiqur Rahman — who is the head of the outfit that was deregistered in 2013 and banned on August 1, 2024 — had visited the Dhakeshwari temple and had met Hindu minority groups.

Hindu minority leader Basudeb Dhar, who met the Jamaat-e-Islami leaders as incidents of attacks against Hindus were being reported, told The Indian Express, “I told the Jamaat leaders that you have an image of being a communal and fundamentalist group. This is your opportunity to prove yourself otherwise.” Dhar said that Jamaat sent its people to guard the temple as the violence had broken out and the police were not around in the first few days after the fall of Hasina government.

Jamaat’s secretary general Parwar also said, “There has been a wrong perception created that Jamaat is an extremist, fundamentalist and communal party. They have labelled us like that.”

When pressed on the links between Jamaat-e-Islami and terrorist outfits like HUJI (Harkat-ul-Jihad al-Islami) and others, he said, “There has been no evidence of links between Jamaat-e-Islami and terrorist outfits”.

Asked about the period, 2001-2006, during the Bangladesh Nationalist party (BNP)-Jamaat alliance government, when there were anti-India terror acts from Bangladesh, he said, “We were just two ministers out of 60 and about 20 seats out of 200, so our influence was proportionately limited. There were incidents but those were criminal activities. There was no involvement of Jamaat-e-Islami workers then, and there is no involvement of workers now against Hindus or temples. Those who committed those crimes should be brought to justice. This is due to our commitment to Islamic philosophy, our Imaan.”

In August 2005, around 500 bomb explosions took place across Bangladesh at 300 locations in 63 out of its 64 districts. The Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh, a group affiliated with al Qaida, claimed responsibility for the bombings. The Harkat-ul-Jihad al-Islami (Bangladesh) cooperated with the JMB in carrying out the bomb blasts.

The bomb blasts took place when the BNP coalition government was headed by Prime Minister Khaleda Zia and that period was marked by a sharp surge in radical Islamist influence.

Quoting verses from a Surah (chapter) in Holy Quran, he said that when Islamic party forms a government, they have to follow “equity, human dignity and social justice”. “And this is for all mankind, for all Hindus, Muslims and other groups,” Parwar said, adding that he has been in and out of prison for almost eight of the 16 years of Hasina government where none of these tenets of “equity, human dignity and social justice were followed.”

Underlining that the Awami League rule was “a dark period for the opposition space”, he said that what the world saw of people entering the PM’s residence, the Gana Bhaban, was the “outburst of 16 years of pent up anger”.

He said that the students were protesting for jobs and they were simply asking, “where are the jobs that we deserve”. “When Hasina abused them as Razakars, that was a big mistake,” he said.

Critical of India’s support to Hasina, Parwar said that the Indian “intelligence agencies (had) failed to understand the ground situation.” Thanking Prime Minister Narendra Modi for congratulating the chief of the interim government, Muhammad Yunus, he said: “Without saying so in public, they (Indian officials) appear to be accepting their mistakes.”

Asked about the Jamaat-e-Islami’s role in the protests, he said: “A lot of our relatives and friends and their children had participated. We extended our support but it was a students and people’s movement. We gave statements, but not indulged in violence.”

Asked about the status of the ban on the party, Parwar said, “We were banned on August 1, at the peak of the protests, and four days later, the Hasina government collapsed. We have asked the interim government to revoke the ban that was put on us. Let’s see.”

As one leaves the office, and his aide accompanies this correspondent to the exit, a man, in his 30s, tells the aide, “Now you are going to be in power, please get our work done.”