One of the top alleged Hizb-ut Tahrir coordinators in the port city was arrested by the police yesterday from Chittagong’s Chawkbazar area.
Sohan Yasin Mohammed Iqbal, a former student of Chittagong University, had been working to organise the activists of Hizb-ut Tahrir units at the CU and at Chittagong University of Engineering and Technology (Cuet), said Chawkbazar police OC Aziz Ahmed.
The police acted on a tip-off to arrest Sohan, 29, from his family residence in Deb Pahar area in the early hours of the day, the Chawkbazar officer-in-charge said, adding that a computer, few books and some documents were seized from his possession.
After finishing his MBA studies in 2009, Sohan was reportedly employed by a telecom company, but he did not carry on with his work. Instead, he spent his time coordinating among members of the CU and the Cuet units of the banned Islamist outfit through Facebook, email and other internet-based channels.
During primary interrogation, the arrestee told the police that around 30 to 40 Hizb-ut Tahrir activists are working at the CU and Cuet to influence and recruit students with an aim to establish a Khilafat state, OC Aziz said.
The detained Hizb-ut Tahrir leader however denied claims that his organisation had any links to the recent string of blogger killings, insisting that Hizb-ut activists only worked to establish a Khilafat state, the OC quoted Sohan as saying.
Sohan, along with his brother Safat Nasir, had previously been arrested in 2011 for having links to the banned outfit. They were released on bail, but Safat was again arrested seven months back on similar charges, the police official added.