Law enforcement officials have arrested more than a hundred Hefazat-e-Islam leaders and activists, including senior members of their central and city unit committees, following the group’s violence and vandalism across the country.
In the latest development, Joint Secretary General Mamunul Haque was arrested at a madrasa in Dhaka on Sunday.
Since April 11, a total of eight central leaders have been shown as arrested in different cases.
The arrested central leaders include Maulana Junaid Al Habib, central joint secretary general and president of Dhaka Metropolitan Hefazat-e-Islam; Azizul Haque Islamabadi, organizing secretary; Jalal Uddin Ahmed, Dhaka city unit assistant secretary general; Maulana Monjurul Islam Afendi, assistant secretary general; Mufti Sharif Ullah, assistant publicity secretary; Mufti Sakhawat Hossain Raji, assistant secretary general; Mufti Ilyas Hamidi, central joint-finance secretary; and Maulana Jubayer, Dhaka city unit vice-president.
After being detained on April 11, Azizul Haque Islamabadi was shown as arrested in a case filed with Paltan police station over the mayhem carried out by Hefazat leaders and activists at Motijheel’s Shapla Chhattar in 2013.
Police said that they would also interrogate him about the chaos caused by Hefazat in protest of the visit of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi from March 26-27.
Mufti Sharif Ullah was arrested on Tuesday and Monjurul Islam Afendi the next day. Sharif was shown as arrested in a case filed in 2013 with Jatrabari police station and Monjurul Islam was shown as arrested in the 2013 Shapla Chattar case.
RAB arrested Mufti Ilyas Hamidi on April 11 from Keraniganj in Dhaka on charges of planning sabotage, spreading religious extremism, conspiracy and propaganda
Sakhawat Hossain, who was arrested on Wednesday from the capital’s Lalbag, was accused in a number of cases filed with Paltan and Motijhil police stations centring the violent anti-modi protest. He was put on remand in a 2013 case.
Maulana Jubayer was arrested on Friday in a case filed over the Shapla Chattar mayhem in 2013.
