More arrests over Jamaat rampage
Law enforcers arrested 143 more leaders and activists of Jamaat-e-Islami and Islami Chhatra Shibir in drives overnight Tuesday in the capital and six other districts for violence and attacks on policemen.
Of them, 46 people were detained in the capital, 42 in Kushtia, 14 in Rajshahi, 11 in Chandpur, eight in Chittagong, 21 in Feni and one in Narayanganj district.
Earlier on Monday and Tuesday, a total of 327 Jamaat-Shibir men were picked up in different districts for the same offences.
The clashes broke out when the Jamaat-Shibir activists took to the streets as part of their nine-day programme demanding release of their nine top leaders now being tried for committing crimes against humanity during the 1971 Liberation War.
The brawls left at least 384 people, including 140 policemen, injured. Some activists of the Islamist party looted a rifle in Rajshahi and a shotgun in Noakhali from police and set afire many vehicles and shops and damaged dozens of others.
In the capital, 27 Jamaat-Shibir men were arrested by the Rapid Action Battalion-3 (Rab) and 19 by Ramna police.
Court sources said 35 out of the 46 arrestees were yesterday placed on three-day remand each in connection with violence and vandalism at Malibagh on Tuesday. The rest were sent to jail.
Besides, 19 out of the 35 detainees were placed on four-day remand each on charges of attacking policemen and obstructing them in their duties.
Talking to The Daily Star, Lt Col MM Anisur Rahman, commanding officer of Rab-3, said they arrested 16 Jamaat-Shibir men at Meererbagh while they were in a meeting to devise plans for carrying out subversive activities.
The elite force also picked up 11 more Jamaat activists from different parts of the city.
Ramna police said they arrested 19 Jamaat-Shibir men from Malibagh and its adjacent areas for attacking police and creating anarchy on city streets on Monday and Tuesday.
In Kushtia, police arrested 42 Jamaat-Shibir men from different parts of the district, reports our correspondent.
Law enforcers said they made the arrests following the filing of two cases against 400 Jamaat-Shibir men over Sunday's attacks on police, said Zoynal Abedin, additional police superintendent in Kushtia.
Rajshahi police arrested 14 Jamaat men from different areas in the district for Monday's attacks on cops that left 30 policemen injured, adds our Rajshahi correspondent.
Jamaat-Shibir men attacked two policemen, snatched a rifle from them and hit them with the rifle in the city's Shaheb Bazar on Monday evening.
Police in Chittagong detained eight activists of Islami Chhatra Shibir, an associated body of Jamaat, from different areas of the port city on charges of vandalism and attacks on police.
A court in Feni yesterday sent 13 Jamaat-Shibir men to jail after they surrendered before it in connection with a case filed for attacking policemen on Tuesday, reports our correspondent.
Police picked up 10 more Jamaat activists in the district.
A correspondent from Chandpur adds: Police arrested Chandpur town Jamaat unit chief Shahjahan Mia and 10 others on charge of plotting subversive activities.
In Narayanganj, police detained Jamaat leader Nazrul Islam from Fatullah area in connection with attacking police on Tuesday.
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