A council meeting of Qawmi madrasa-based radical Islamist group Hefazat-e-Islam Bangladesh selected the next Ameer and Secretary General of the party on Sunday.
Incumbent Secretary General Junayed Babunagari and the party's Dhaka city unit President Nur Hossain Kasemi have been elected the next Ameer and Secretary General, respectively.
Hefazat’s Central Organizing Secretary Azizul Haque Islamabadi confirmed the matter to the Dhaka Tribune. It was the first meeting of the council of Hefaza-e-Islam after the death of the platform’s supreme leader Shah Ahmad Shafi.
“A 151-member central committee of Hefazat-e-Islam Bangladesh has also been announced at the council meeting,” said Azizul.
With Hefazat’s Nayeb-e-Ameer Muhibullah Babunagari (maternal uncle of Junayed Babunagari) in the chair, the meeting commenced at 10:30 am with the participation of several hundred councillors, advisers, top Islamic leaders and scholars.
The post of the Ameer fell vacant after Shafi died while undergoing treatment at Asgar Ali Hospital in the capital on September 18. Shafi was the director general of Al-Jamiatul Ahlia Darul Ulum Moinul Islam, also known as the Hathazari Madrasa.
Meanwhile, the rift within the party has resurfaced as a faction of Hefazat-e-Islam announced that it would boycott the forthcoming council.
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One of the leaders of the faction, Mainuddin Ruhi, earlier said the council has been convened to implement the agenda of Jamaat-e-Islami and Islami Chhatra Shibir.
A huge contingent of police has been deployed around the council venue to avert any untoward incident.
Hefazat was formed in 2010 and came to prominence by mobilizing opposition to the Shahbagh Movement in early 2013. It was then that its leaders issued their now infamous 13-point charter, which included demands for death penalty for atheists and certain restrictions on social gathering between men and women.