Cases Over Mayhem: 3 more Hefajat leaders arrested

Three more Hefajat leaders were arrested in cases filed over violence in 2013 and March this year while five, including four arrested earlier, were placed on remand yesterday.

Meanwhile, 16 cases filed after the recent violence by Hefajat-e-Islam in six districts were transferred to the Police Bureau of Investigation.

Rab arrested Khaled Saifullah Ayubi, joint secretary general of Hefajat, in Manikganj early yesterday. He is accused in a case filed with Paltan Police Station after the violence in March this year, Commander Khandaker Al Moin, Rab's Legal and Media Wing director, told The Daily Star.

Police arrested Maulana Sanaullah, executive member of Dhaka City Hefajat, at a madrasa in the capital's New market area. He is also accused in the case filed with Paltan Police Station, said Jahidul Islam Sohag, assistant commissioner (Motijheel) at Dhaka Metropolitan Police. And a team of Detective Branch of Police in the afternoon arrested Hefajat's Joint Office Secretary Maulana Ihteshamul Haque Sakhi in the capital's Bangshal area.

FIVE ON REMAND

A Dhaka court yesterday placed four top leaders and an activist of Hefajat on different terms of remand in three cases filed with Paltan Police Station over the 2013 mayhem and recent violence in Dhaka.

They are: Hefajat Assistant Secretary General and Bangladesh Khelafat Majlish Nayeb-e-Amir Khurshid Alam Kasemi, Khelafat Majlish Joint Secretary General Mufti Sharafat Hossain, Hefajat Assistant Organising Secretary Ataullah Ameen, Maulana Sanaullah, and Hefajat Dhaka City unit Vice-president Maulana Jubair Ahmed.

Khurshid and Sharafat were placed on a five-day remand in two separate cases filed in 2013 while Ataullah and Sanaullah were placed on a five-day remand in a case filed over the violence on March 26 this year.

Jubair was placed on a 10-day remand in two cases filed over the 2013 mayhem and the recent violence. He was brought to the court yesterday on completion of a five-day remand in another case filed in 2013.

Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Baki Billah passed the remand orders.

In the remand prayers, the investigation officer said the Hefajat leaders were directly involved in the mayhem in 2013 and March this year and they had to be placed on remand for the investigation.

A virtual court in Dhaka yesterday placed Rafiqul Islam Madani, widely known as "Shishu Bokta", on a seven-day remand in a case filed with Motijheel Police Station under the Digital Security Act for making "inciting speech".

Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Abu Sufian Md Noman passed the order.

Another court on Wednesday placed Rafiqul, who was arrested by Rab on April 7, on a nine-day remand in two cases filed with Tejgaon and Motijheel police stations.

PBI INVESTIGATING 16 CASES

"We received the cases last week and are investigating them," PBI Chief Banaj Kumar Majumder told The Daily Star.

Investigators are collecting video footage of the violence and the inciting speeches that Hefajat leaders started removing from social media since the crackdown began, he said.

The cases were filed with different police stations in Chattogram, Narayanganj, Munshiganj, Kishoreganj and Brahmanbaria.

On April 18, 23 other cases against Hefajat leaders were handed over to the Criminal Investigation Department.