35 Hizb-ut Tahrir suspects arrested
Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) on Sunday arrested 35 alleged members of banned outfit Hizb-ut- Tahrir from a restaurant in the capital's Panthapath where they were holding a “secret meeting”.
Rab officials claimed that the meeting was convened to plan “subversive activities” or “massive showdown” after the Eid vacation. However, Rab could not clarify what kind of massive or subversive activities the youth had been planning.
Commander M Sohail, director of Rab's Legal and Media wing, said they had conducted the drive at Asiana Restaurant in Monowara Plaza around 6:45pm when they came to know about the seminar is being held in the name of Iftar-mahfil. Rab arrested all the 35 who were present there.
The Commander also said their intelligence had confirmed about the activities; however, the arrestees did not admit anything yet.
The arrestees were paraded before the media at the Rab headquarters in Uttara yesterday, even though the newsmen were not permitted to talk with them.
Rab also recovered some books and leaflets of the banned organisation from the spot.
Last night, Rab handed the 35 detainees over to Kalabagan police. A case under the anti-terrorism act was filed against them with the Police Station.
Of the arrestees, four are teachers of school, college and private university; eight study in different private medical and dental colleges, English medium schools and private universities; and 12 are university admission seekers.
One youth among the arrestees is a stock market trader while nine work in different private firms and one is unemployed, said Commander Sohail.
Based on the information the arrestees had given, Rab early yesterday raided the houses of 21 arrestees and seized a large number of banned books, magazines, leaflets, camera containing photographs of their activities, a laptop, several pen drives, cell phones and SIM cards, he added.
He also claimed that the banned outfit was having a tough time since law enforcers became active against them and arrested many of their activists. So the outfit had been organising invitation programs secretly where they could regroup and motivate people to join it.
The iftar-mahfil was arranged especially to motivate students, who have come to Dhaka for higher study, he added.
The Rab spokesperson also claimed that because of continuous drives against the banned outfits, like Hizb-ut-Tahrir and Harkatul Zihad, their members were shaking hands with other Islamist political parties hiding identities but carried out the activities of their own outfit.
"The number of such activists would be more than a lakh," he said, adding that in most cases detained activists of such Islamist groups get out on bail and soon rejoin their outfits.
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