On the back foot since its May 6 demonstration, Hefazat-e-Islam Bangladesh is set to drop the 18-party opposition alliance leaders and increase pressure on the government for its 13-point demands. As part of this process, it will reconstitute its central and district-level committees.
Chief of the Chittagong-based organisation, Shah Ahmed Shafi made the announcement on Thursday at the Hathazari Al-Jamiatul Ahlia Darul Ulum Moinul Islam Madrasa, its central leader Alamgir Hossain confirmed to the Dhaka Tribune by phone.
The group has been on the run since May 6 when law-enforcers forced its chief out of Dhaka and took his deputy Junaid Babunagari into custody. Thousands of Hefazat leaders and activists were implicated in 26 cases filed in connections with the mayhem in Dhaka and violence in Dhaka suburbs next day. Two policemen and a border guard were among the dead as Hefazat men ran riot at at Kanchpur in Narayanganj.
Alamgir said majlis-e-shura would be formed at district levels, comprising representation of leaders of the upazila- and union parishad-level units. In the Islamist parties, majlis-e-shura is the highest policymaking body.
He said the committees of lawyers, doctors, teachers, businesses and other professional bodies would also be formed. Currently, Hefazat has only district-level committees of lawyers.
“The organisation chief has assigned the task of reconstituting the district majlis-e-shura committees to me,” Alamgir told this reporter. “After the 'Dhaka siege,' the organisational activities have apparently been suspended. The central and district committees including that of Dhaka will be restructured to expedite the movement,” he added.
Another senior leader, however, said all the committees of the group would be suspended and reformed.
One of Hefazat’s Dhaka unit members told this reporter that the reshuffle of the committees was being influenced by the government.
Another Dhaka committee leader, Mufti Altaf Hossain, however, told the Dhaka Tribune that they are reconstituting the district committees to strengthen the movement. “It is not motivated or prescribed by the government. It is the decision of our chief,” he said.
Hefazat chief Shafi in a statement on Thursday said the movement had not come to a standstill and would continue until the demands were met.
The group currently runs its activities through the central committee based in the Hathazari madrasa. Its activities in Dhaka were controlled from the Jamia Arabia Madrasa (Lalbagh Madrasa), headquarters of its opposition ally Islami Oikya Jote, led by Abdul Latif Nezami.
Hefazat, formed on January 19, 2010, has been demonstrating over the “anti-Islamic” policies on education and women development. Its central committee has two members from Hefazat – chief Shafi and Secretary General Junaid Babunagari – while the others are from the opposition alliance and other pro-opposition Islamist groups.
It came up with its 13- point demand at the end of February that includes as its principal demand, a death sentence to “atheist bloggers” who led the Shahbagh movement against the war criminals.
With support from the opposition allies including the BNP-Jamaat, Jatiya Party and Bikalpadhara Bangladesh, The group organised a "long march" to Dhaka on April 6 and held a rally at Motijheel, where it announced the Dhaka siege for May 5, if its demands were not met.
At rallies before the May 5 blockade, the Hefazat leaders said the government would not be able to stay in power without meeting its demands and that the next government would have to meet them. It also threatened to take over Bangabhaban and enforce the holy Qur'an instead of the constitution.
The Hefazat leaders enforced the blockade that morning, but violence erupted as supporters of the blockade clashed with police in the capital’s Paltan and adjoining areas. Without planning to hold a rally beforehand, the group asked the police for permission at noon to organise one at the Motijheel intersection and promised to leave the site at 6pm.
But as violence and arson escalated, the Hefazat leader did not end the rally, and supporters continued their sit-in, saying they would not leave until their demands were met. They rejected the police’s request to leave, and at around 2:30am law enforcers launched a drive and dispersed them.
On May 21, Hefazat's secretary general gave confessional statement to a Dhaka court. According to media reports, he said Hefazat could not control the Motijheel rally when the 18-party opposition activists engaged in mayhem. He also claimed that the alliance financed his group.
In a statement the next day, the Hefazat chief claimed that the confession was gleaned from Babunagari by force. But the statement was withdrawn within hours, the group saying that what it knew from media was questionable, so it was waiting for the police report.
The 18-party alliance also rejected media reports on Babunagari’s statement.
