Tahrir tried to create another mutiny

Hizb-ut Tahrir tried to capitalise on the 2009 BDR mutiny and trigger an uprising in the army to make the situation more volatile.
Founder leader of Hizb-ut Tahrir Bangladesh Golam Maola during preliminary interrogation said he played a significant role in distributing provocative leaflets regarding the army at the BDR headquarters in Pilkhana just after the mutiny.
An intelligence agency had recovered such leaflets from Pilkhana and since then they had been trying to find the people behind it.
Prof Syed Golam Maola told interrogators that they tried to capitalise on the discontent among army personnel caused by the killing of 57 army officials in the hands of the paramilitary jawans during the mutiny.
Interrogators said Hizb-ut operatives distributed leaflets bearing the "Jaago Muslim Senabahini Jaago" (rise up the army of the Muslims) slogan in and around the Bangladesh Rifles headquarters after the February 25-26 mutiny.
Interrogators said Hizb-ut Tahrir tried to create another mutiny in the army.
Detective Branch of police produced Golam Maola before a Dhaka court yesterday, which placed him on a three-day remand. He was arrested Thursday.
Maola, a lecturer of management department of Dhaka University, is accused in three cases filed with Uttara Police Station under Anti-Terrorism Act, Deputy Commissioner Mahbubor Rahman of DB said.
Mahbubor claimed that Maola used to monitor all publications, literatures and write-ups of the banned Islamist organisation.
Assistant Commissioner of DB Solaiman said Maola after the mutiny held several seminars in the capital at which he delivered provocative speeches and distributed leaflets and other publications.
Maola during the interrogation said they have a panel with the job of checking all the leaflets and publications and he is a member of that panel. They wanted to convey their message to the army through the people, Maola told interrogators.
He also said they were also developing relations with Jamaat-e-Islami.
Deputy Commissioner Mahbubor said, "Recently Maola had been keeping regular contact with a Jamaat leader."
They were trying to forge a secret alliance with Jamaat to destabilise the government by creating anarchy across the country so that they can foil the trial of war criminals, the police official claimed.
Mahbubor, however, said they are verifying the information gleaned from Maola regarding the Jamaat connection.
The government imposed a ban on Hizb-ut Tahrir on October 22 last year in connection with its anti-state and anti-democratic activities.
Hizb ut-Tahrir Bangladesh had been launching open campaign for last few years calling people to establish its self-styled Khilafat rule.
Despite the ban, the organisation is still holding processions at different places.
Police have arrested 300 leaders and workers of the organisation including its chief coordinator Mohiuddin Ahmed, an associate professor of the IBA at Dhaka University, and deputy chief Kazi Morshedul Haque.
Islami thinker Tokiuddin Al Nakhani formed Hizb-ut Tahrir, also banned in many countries across the globe, in 1953 in Jerusalem, five years after Israel occupied Palestine.
Meanwhile, police last night arrested four suspected leaders, including Chittagong unit chief Nur Mohammad, of the banned outfit from the capital's Kalabagan area.
The other detainees are Mohammad Nasir Uddin Majumder Jilani, 24, Rakib Uddin Ahmmed, 35, and Sheikh Omar Sharif alias Russell.
The four were arrested around 10:30pm while preparing for a meeting at a rented flat on Crescent Road.
Syed Nurul Islam, additional deputy commissioner (ADC) of Ramna division, told The Daily Star yesterday that the intelligent department informed them that the Hizb ut-Tahrir activists had been living in the building and were preparing for an inter-divisional meeting.
All the four arrestees are former students of Chittagong University and were involved in last Sunday's rampage in the port city, said the ADC, adding that they have seized a number of "jihadi" books, leaflets and some other documents from their possession.
A case was lodged against them under Anti-terrorism Act with Kalabagan Police Station, said the ADC.
The Tahrir leaders were detained a day after the arrest of their advisor Prof Syed Golam Maola of Dhaka University.
The government banned Hizb ut-Tahrir on October 22 last year for its anti-state and anti-democratic activities, but the outfit is still holding processions at different places on different occasions escaping police watch.