The man behind the Islamic Democratic Party

The man behind the Islamic Democratic Party



Kazi Azizul Huq, an Islamic fundamentalist leader in Bangladesh. (Photo/William Gomes)Nischintopur, Bangladesh, November 15 — The Daily Star headline “The CID hunts for IDP adviser Azizul Huq” caught my eye recently. The government should dig out who is behind the formation of the Islamic Democratic Party (IDP); it is obviously not Kazi Azizul Huq or Sheikh Abdus Salam. The man behind the scenes has a careful plan behind forming the Islamic Democratic Party.

The government is missing the point on where these people are getting their power. Why would extremists, people who would never submit to being ruled by any un-Islamic force, go any other way?

Still, the man behind the scenes, Jewish lobbyist Dr. Richard L. Benkin, and his local contact, Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury, are doing their best to destabilize the Bangladesh government led by Sheikh Hasina.

According to the Weekly Blitz, Kazi Azizul Huq is a truly Islamic leader who is lending his voice in favor of Israel and Bangladesh establishing relations. The main reason laid out by the paper is that Dr. Benkin planned to show his superiors success in establishing relations between Israel and Bangladesh. In actuality, Kazi Azizul Huq and Sheikh Abdus Salam plan to influence parliament to finalize their ultimate goal of destabilizing Bangladesh. Kazi Azizul Huq even has ties with some high officials of the DGFI and some powerful high officials of the National Security Intelligence, who were later transferred to a mission in Australia.

Kazi Azizul Huq, who is living outside of Dhaka, is in close contact with Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury, who was the managing director of Inqilab Television, a private television venture run by the Daily Inqilab newspaper. Choudhury was also a correspondent for the Daily Inqilab. According to Choudhury, he owned a 30 percent stake in Inquilab Television, worth approximately $1 million. Choudhury claims his share in the television station was sold without his consent. At Choudhury's first court appearance, he claimed that his arrest was motivated by a financial dispute over his stake in Inqilab Television.

Choudhury has previously threatened to kill Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. Dr. Benkin is registered as a foreign agent with the United States Department of Justice under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), and he also served as a foreign agent with Lutfuzzaman Babar, the former state minister for home affairs of Bangladesh, as his principal, for a sum of $5,000 per month to prepare and disseminate informational materials via radio or TV broadcasts, magazines or newspaper articles, letters or telegrams, press releases and the internet.

The government is failing to recognize the mastermind behind the formation of the IDP and the plotting of the "Minus Two Formula" - the goal of which was to expel Sheikh Hasina and former prime minister Khaleda Zia from Bangladesh - which was guided by Dr. Richard Benkin and focalized from inside the Weekly Blitz office with the help of Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury.