Wahhabis allow only police and their friends to cross the passage, while from strangers, even the policemen in civilian clothes, they’re seeking legitimacy. According to the team of journalists from Nezavisne newspaper, a guard at one checkpoint was held by Wahhabi who was in his car overseeing the arrival of newcomers.
"We have interfered already, there is no checkpoint anymore. They meant to protect themselves, but the police has its own checkpoint. Legitimizing is the official action, it is well known who can and who cannot do it," said Nedim Mutapcic, Police Commissioner of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in Tuzla Canton. He also added that the police’s checkpoint is several kilometers from Gornja Maoca.
Salim Basic, commissioner of the local community Maoca, explained that the villagers do not hold a checkpoint, but rather running "media blockade": "They are concerned for their safety. They do not want to express their standpoint in the media, and do not want the media to come in the village. Although they will give, as far as I know, very soon their statement and opinion about the action Svjetlost", said Basic.
From some non-governmental organizations in B&H, came the warning about the serious problem in which no one important from Sarajevo, i.e. the Presidency of B&H, Sulejman Tihic, Haris Silajdzic, nor Bakir Izetbegovic, even Reis, did not give their support to the action, leaving therefore, all policemen totally alone in this. However, Bakir Izetbegovic said that he thinks the police action in Maoca is way overdimensioned, while imams from Gornji Rahić, Maoca Nova and Maoca Stara, in the report addressed to the chief of the Islamic Community of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Mustafa Ceric, said:
"We, Imams, don’t want to interfere too much in the reasons of this police action carried out by organs of state security, but we are outraged with the way this action is carried out, they’re treating people in such a brutal way, people who did not touch or upset anyone."
According to their words, the local residents claim that action "Svjetlost" in Gornja Maoca is not against Wahhabis, but against the Islamic community and the Muslims in B&H.
"Although the majority of the population in this region do not agree with the presence of Wahhabi community here, we think that the reaction of the police action was too rigid, and none of the Muslims do not support this mode of action, nor they support any explanation why it is implemented in such a way," it is stated in the report.
So far, large police action ‘Svjetlost’ arrested seven Wahhabis and seized a large quantity of weapons. The Court of B&H will determine until March 2nd the custody for these seven arrested, charged for forming a criminal organization with the aim of compromising the territorial integrity of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and for the attack on the constitutional order and incitement to ethnic, racial or religious hatred, discord and intolerance.
Chief Prosecutor from Prosecution of B&H, Milorad Barasin, said that based on what is found during the police action ‘’Svjetlost’’ in Gornja Maoca, one may get the impression that it was a dangerous terrorist group.
Related articles:
