‘Hamza Brigade’ in Ctg: 33 indicted on terror charges

A Chattogram court yesterday framed charges against 33 people, including High Court lawyer Shakila Farzana, in two cases filed over their alleged involvement with Shaheed Hamza Brigade (SHB), a militant outfit busted by the Rab members in 2015.

Chattogram Anti-Terrorism Tribunal’s acting Judge Abdul Halim framed the charges in the cases filed with Hathazari and Banshkhali police stations under the Anti-Terrorism Act, said Monoranjan Das, public prosecutor of the tribunal.

The tribunal also issued an arrest warrant against Shakila, daughter of the BNP’s former whip Syed Wahidul Alam.

“Barrister Shakila is accused in both the cases and had been on bail,” Monoranjan said, adding that the tribunal issued the warrant cancelling her bail.

The tribunal fixed September 8 for recording witnesses testimonies in the cases, he also said.

Shakila’s lawyer advocate Abdus Sattar said they had sought some more time from the tribunal as his client was staying abroad for treatment.

Shakila was arrested along with two other lawyers -- Hasanuzzaman Liton and Mahfuz Chowdhury Papon -- on charges of funding terrorism on August 18, 2015.

Rab said the trio had deposited a total of Tk 1.08 crore in the bank account of Maniruzzaman Don, a key member of the SHB.

On February 19, 2015, Rab raided a training centre of the SHB, which was being run in the guise of an Arabic learning centre, at a madrasa in Olipur area of Chattogram’s Hathazari upazila and arrested 12 people.

Rab claimed the centre was used for teaching extremism to the newly recruited members of the outfit.

However, the elite force members could not arrest chief of the training centre Mohammad Fattah, who had escaped before the raid.

They are yet to trace out Maniruzzaman and Allama Libidi, a Dubai expatriate and another donor of the militant outfit.

Rab said Chattogram-based Hamza Brigade was formed in late 2013 by some former members of Jamaat-e-Islami’s student wing Islami Chhatra Shibir, Qawmi madrasa-based radical platform Hefazat-e-Islam and other militant groups.

Their aim was to topple the incumbent government through an armed revolution and establish an Islamic state incorporating Chattogram, CHT, Cox’s Bazar and parts of the bordering areas of Myanmar and India.