Cops arrest 2 more Hefajat leaders in city

Police yesterday arrested two top leaders of Hefajat-e-Islam from the capital along seven supporters of the Islamist group from Brahmanbaria.

The two leaders are Dhaka City unit President Maulana Zunayed Al Habib and an Assistant Secretary General Maulana Jalaluddin Ahmed

Maulana Zunayed is also the joint secretary general of Hefajat, a Qawmi madrasa-based Islamist organisation.

Law enforcers said that the two were arrested in connection with cases filed following the 2013 mayhem and the one in late March this year.

Detectives arrested Zunayed from the city's Baridhara area in the evening and Jalaluddin from Mohammadpur area.

Mahbub Alam, joint commissioner of the Detective Branch of Dhaka Metropolitan Police, confirmed the arrest of Zunayed while Aaduzzaman, deputy commissioner of the Detective Branch of Police (Motijheel Division), confirmed the arrest of Jalaluddin.

The drive is still going on, he added.

Earlier several top leaders of Hefajat, including its Dhaka unit Vice-President Maulana Jubair Ahmed, was arrested on Friday from his house in the capital. Mufti Sharifullah, central assistant organising secretary, was arrested on Tuesday, and Shakhawat Hossain, central assistant secretary general, was arrested on Wednesday.

They were all involved in the recent incidents of Hefajat mayhem and also involved in the 2013 mayhem in Dhaka, police officials said.

The recent spate of violence from the Qawmi madrasa-based organisation erupted during Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Bangladesh and the subsequent hartal called by Hefajat on March 28.

On May 5, 2013, thousands of Hefajat members clashed with law enforcers and ruling AL men, turning Motijheel and Paltan areas into battlefields.

A total of 83 cases were filed in seven districts, including Dhaka, accusing 3,416 named and 84,796 unnamed people. Many of the accused were from Hefajat, Jamaat-e-Islam and BNP.

Police have pressed charges in 18 cases and given final reports in two other cases. Investigations of 62 others have been stalled.

Recently, police officials were directed to complete investigations within one or two months, said officials.

The Daily Star's Brahmanbaria correspondent reported that seven more supporters of Hefajat-e-Islam were arrested in several cases filed over vandalism and arson in Brahmanbaria on March 26 and 28, according to a press release of Special Branch of district police.

Law enforcers arrested them from different areas conducting a special drive from Thursday night to Friday night, said Md Roish Uddin, additional superintendent of police in Brahmanbaria.

So far, 55 cases have been filed over the mayhem -- 49 with Brahmanbaria Sadar Model Police Station, three with Ashuganj Police Station, two with Sarail Police Station, and one with Akhaura Railway Police Station.

Some 414 people have been named in these cases alongside more than 35,000 unknown individuals.

Until yesterday, total 268 people were arrested in connection with the cases and among them, 228 are activists and supporters of Hefajat and 37 of BNP, while three are of Jamaat-e-Islami.

District police claimed that those accused in the cases were identified from photos and video footages of the incidents.

Meanwhile, Maulana Jubair Ahmed, vice-president of Hefajat-e-Islam's Dhaka city unit, was placed on a five-day remand yesterday in a case filed with Paltan Police Station over the 2013 incident in Dhaka.

Metropolitan Magistrate Mohammad Jashim passed the order after Md Kamrul Islam Talukder, an inspector of the Detective Branch of Police, and also the investigation officer of the case, produced him with a 10-day remand prayer in the case.

In the remand prayer, the IO said Jubair and others accused were directly involved with the incident on May 5, 2013, in the city's Paltan area.

"Moreover, he [Jubair] refused to disclose the names of others who were responsible for the incidents and that is why he needs to be remanded for us to gather information about the whereabouts of the others accused," Kamrul added.

In another development, Liberation War Affairs Minister AKM Mozammel Haque said Hefajat will not be spared and they will need to face legal trials for the violence they carried out, adding, "But still, I will say that those who run the state have a lot to consider", when asked if the state should take any responsibility .

He made the comments after paying homage to the portrait of the Father of The Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman at Dhanmondi 32 on the occasion of the historic Mujibnagar Day on April 17.