Police yesterday submitted a charge sheet against nine persons, including radical Hefazat-e-Islam leader Mufti Izharul Islam Chowdhury and his son Mufti Harun, in one of the three cases filed over bomb blasts at the leader’s madrasa in Chittagong city’s Lalkhan Bazar on October 7 last year.
The other accused in the explosives case are the madrasa’s Dinning Superintendent Munir Hossain, teachers Tafsir Ahmed and Abdul Mannan, and students Habibur Rahman, Abdul Hye alias Salman, Md Ishaq and Md Junayed.
Harun is in jail while his father, Hefazat’s senior nayeb-e-ameer, has been on the run since the incident. Mufti Izhar is the also ameer of a faction of the Islami Oikya Jote (IOJ), an ally of the BNP-Jamaat-led 19-party alliance.
Sub-Inspector Lokman Hossain of Khulshi police station, also the investigation officer of the case, submitted the charge sheet to General Register Office section of the Chittagong Metropolitan Court yesterday around 10:30am, said Rezaul Masud, additional deputy commissioner (prosecution) of Chittagong Metropolitan Police (CMP).
The IO mentioned in the charge sheet that the accused had stored explosives like grenades in the madrasa to carry out sabotage across the city to worsen the political situation during a crisis.
At least three people were killed and several others injured in the explosions that took place at a dormitory of Jamiatul Uloom Al-Islamia Madrasa, of which Mufti Izhar is the principal, around 11am on October 7 last year.
Later police recovered three hand grenades, huge materials for making grenades and 18 bottles of picric acid used to amplify the magnitude of explosion.
Three cases including one for murder were lodged with Khulshi police.
Police suspect that Mufti Izhar, 70, and his son have connection with many militant forces at home and abroad.
The Qawmi madrasa in Chittagong has long been known as a den of banned Islamist militant outfit Harkat-ul-Jihad al Islami (Huji). Mufti Izhar played a significant role in spreading the network of the radical outfit across the country since early 1990s with the ultimate goal of launching a jihad.
The madrasa had even trained the Huji members in operating arms so they could fight in the battlefield as trained jihadis.