Members of law enforcement agencies yesterday detained 26 activists of the Islami Chhatra Shibir in Chittagong and Sitakunda upazila under the district for allegedly plotting subversive activities.
In an overnight drive, they detained 12 Shibir activists from different areas in Sitakunda upazila for alleged involvement in the recent incident of violence on the Dhaka-Chittagong Highway.
SM Badiujjaman, officer-in-charge of the Sitakunda police station said they had held the Shibir men from different residences and dorms in the upazila following a tip-off.
Protesting verdict of war criminal Delwar Hossain Sayedee on February 28, activists of BNP and Jamaat-Shibir allegedly conducted rampage on the highway in October this year during their political programmes, causing severe damage to public and state properties.
The force is providing security to the vehicles on the highway, which is known as the country’s lifeline. There are possibilities that the BNP-Jamaat-Shibir men would conduct violence to suspend road communication between Chittagong and other districts, he said.
A team from the Panchlaish police station arrested 14 suspecting as Shibir men from the port city’s Mecca Hotel at Muradpur intersection around 4:30pm yesterday.
Acting on a tip-off, the team arrested them when they allegedly gathered on the spot to plan sabotage, said Shah Mohammad Abdur Rouf, assistant commissioner of Panchlaish circle of Chittagong Metropolitan Police.
He said the police followed an SMS from an unknown number that they received on their mobile phones asking them to be present at the spot at that particular hour, he said.
Police were trying to identify the number, he said.