Cops raid city Jamaat office

Policemen conduct a raid in Jamaat-e-Islami's Dhaka city unit office in the capital's Paltan yesterday. A huge number of booklets, leaflets, banners, posters and forms of the Islamist organisation and pro-Jamaat student organisation Islami Chhatra Shibir were seized. Photo: Star

Police yesterday seized a huge number of booklets, leaflets, banners, posters and official documents of Jamaat-e-Islami and its student wing Islami Chhatra Shibir from the party's Dhaka city unit office at Paltan.
Ashrafuzzaman, deputy commissioner of Dhaka Metropolitan Police's Motijheel zone, told The Daily Star that they would examine whether these contained anti-state or militancy-related elements.
Police said they had noticed a pickup van parked in front of the Jamaat office around 1:15pm. When they approached out of suspicion, two people jumped off the van and ran away. After searching the vehicle, police recovered a bag containing a bomb-like object.

Later the bomb disposal unit of police examined the object and found it to be a balm pot only.
Police then raided the Jamaat office and a nearby under-construction building and seized those publications from there.
A sub-inspector of police, who was on duty during the seizure, said at least three pick-up vans would be needed to carry the seized items.
Meanwhile, a leader of Jamaat's publicity wing said all their publications and documents were related to the organisation only.
"Police have seized those as part of the government's ongoing oppression on Jamaat," the Jamaat leader said, wishing anonymity.
While visiting the Jamaat office and Paltan Police Station, this correspondent found that most of the booklets, leaflets, banners and posters contained statements against the trials of top Jamaat leaders in the International Crimes Tribunal (ICT).
In some booklets, the party urged people to wage an anti-government movement to establish Islamic rule in the country.
Around ten top notches of Jamaat, the key ally of the BNP, are now behind bars, facing charges of committing crimes against humanity during the country's Liberation War.
The ICT probe agency have recently sought ban on the party and its associate bodies, stating that there were evidence of their involvement in genocide and other war crimes in 1971.