Chennai police announced the arrest of six members of Hizb-ut-Tahrir (HuT), an international Islamist organization, for engaging in activities deemed anti-national. These activities included spreading propaganda against elections and democracy. The arrested individuals, ranging in age from their twenties to fifties, have had charges under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) imposed against them.
Allegedly, the group's initial efforts to garner support for a pan-Islamic rule evolved into a more significant movement, attracting a growing number of participants to their closed-door meetings. The group's propaganda focused on questioning the legitimacy of elections and democracy from an Islamic perspective. HuT members argued that democracy and the rule of law are human constructs that are imperfect and subject to change, contrasting them with divine law, which they viewed as supreme.
Among the arrested individuals is Hameed Hussain, a Mechanical Engineering Ph.D. holder who had been teaching at engineering colleges until 2021. His father, Ahmed Mansoor, brother Abdul Rehman, and three others - Mohammed Maurice, Khader Nawaz Sherif, and Ahmed Ali - were also taken into custody. All six are Chennai natives. Hameed Hussain has been actively sharing his ideology through YouTube videos, while his father, Mansoor, organized private meetings to advance their cause.
The origins of their activities trace back to an initiative to translate the teachings of Zakir Naik, a fundamentalist Islamic preacher who left India some years ago, into Tamil. The arrests of the six HuT members were carried out by the Chennai police's cyber crime unit in a joint operation with intelligence agencies closely monitoring the situation. Central intelligence agencies are reportedly keeping a close eye on HuT-related developments.
