Anjumane Hefazate Islam wants release of leader

Demanding release of their UK unit chairman Sheikh Nure Alam, Anjumane Hefazate Islam Bangladesh leaders yesterday accused police of torturing him after arrest.
Addressing a press conference in the capital's Dhaka Reporters Unity, they claimed that their organisation was nonpartisan and had no links with radical Islamist group Hefazate Islam Bangladesh, a Qaumi madrasa-based Islamist organization.
Hefazate Islam Bangladesh had branded as “atheists” the activists of Shahbagh's Gonojagoron Mancha who have been demanding death penalty for war criminals.
In order to foil Chittagong Gonojagonoron Mancha's programme, they had recently declared a rally at the same venue that the “atheists” had chosen to hold demonstrations.
Yesterday the organisation's Chief Khalilur Rahman Hamidi said Alam was going to the capital's New Market when he stopped at Kataban mosque for Juma prayers on February 22.
Later he got trapped inside as activists of a political organisation (Jamaat-e-Islami) brought out processions against bloggers and online activists of Shahbagh, he said.
He claimed that the activists clashed with police and law enforcers arrested Alam, a Bangladesh-born British citizen.
Alam came to the country on January 31 and was scheduled to leave for Britain on March 3, he said.