Countrywide combing operation: 300 Jamaat, Shibir activists held
About 200 Shibir activists were arrested on Friday.
They were later produced before the court. Banglar
Chokh
They were later produced before the court. Banglar
Chokh
Police lathicharged leaders and workers of Khelafat
Majlish when they tried to hold a rally in the city on
Friday. NN photo
Majlish when they tried to hold a rally in the city on
Friday. NN photo
Police have detained at least 300 activists of Jamaat-e-Islami and its associated student organisation Islami Chhatra Shibir in a countrywide massive hunt for alleged involvement in recent campus violence that killed several students and injured dozens.
Chittagong police yesterday rounded up about 110 Shibir activists along with metropolitan Jamaat Nayeb-e-Amir Md Ahsanullah from a demonstration brought out to claim the body of slain Chittagong University student AAM Mahiuddin.
A Rajshahi court yesterday placed city Jamaat-e-Islami Ameer Ataur Rahman and 10 others on a five-day remand for interrogation about the killing of Rajshahi University student Faruk Hossain.
State minister for Home Affairs Shamsul Haque Tuku said that his ministry on Thursday ordered government agencies to carry out "combing operation to uproot unruly Shibir elements in all educational institutions".
In Dhaka, Shahbagh police arrested 21 Shibir men at two students' messes in the city's Paribagh area yesterday.
Police identified 19 of the activists of Dhaka University students. Of them three are leaders of the university unit of the student organisation.
Police said the arrested DU students included Shibir's DU unit publicity secretary Mohabbat Ali, finance secretary Abul Kashem and publication secretary Jamaluddin.
Other arrestees are Hafizur Rahman and Md Habib, Naimul Islam, Sakhawat Hossain and Aminul Islam, Hadiar Rahman, Shafiullah Khan, Abdul Gafur (Journalism and Mass Communication), Moyenuddin (English), Md Kabir and Ehteshamul Haq, Insanal, Muntasir Mamun and Atiqul Islam, Ibrahim Khalil and Masud Rana. The two other arrestees from the capital are Dhaka College's student Md Sabbir and IBIT's Alamgir Hossain.
Thirty-six other suspected Shibir activists were arrested from Uttara in Dhaka yesterday. Deputy Commissioner of Uttara zone police Nisarul Arif told The New Nation that they conducted a raid at a mess at Sector 14 on information that Shibir men fleeing from Rajshahi had taken shelter there. Police arrested the Shibir men and seized anti-government leaflets from there, he said.
A Dhaka metropolitan magistrate court sent the arrested students to jail under Section 54 of the Criminal Procedure Code, as they were produced before it, rejecting their bail prayers.
Police yesterday dispersed a rally of Islami Chhatra Shibir in city's Paltan area and arrested nine Shibir activists following a brief chase and counter- chase. Seven Shibir men and five policemen were injured during the half-hour melee.
Witnesses said police cordoned off the area near Bijoynagar water tank where Chhatra Shibir, the student wing of Jamaat-e-Islami, was holding a rally at about 2 PM protesting the Thursday's killing of a student of Chittagong University whom it claimed to be its activist.
At one stage, the law enforcers chased the Shibir men to disperse the rally. A brief chase and counter-chase took place between police and Shibir activists who again tried to hold a rally near Fakirerpool water tank.
Police used water cannon and charged batons on the protesters who pelted brickbats at the law enforcers, leaving some 12 people, including five policemen, injured. Later, police reinforcement from Paltan thana appeared on the scene and arrested nine Shibir men.
Meanwhile, police arrested 9 Shibir activists from Rajshahi, one each from Dinajpur, Natore and Pabna districts yesterday.
In Chittagong more than 200 policemen stopped the Shibir procession and being resisted, the processionists pelted brick chips, prompting the law enforcers to lob at least five rounds of teargas shell and resort to baton charge to disperse the Jamaat and Shibir men.
At least 15 policemen, including Assistant Commissioner of Detective Branch Jahangir Alam and Officer-in-Charge of Kotwali Police Station Mohiuddin Mahmud, and 15 other people were injured during the scuffle. As they took shelter in nearby buildings, police rounded up more than 100 Jamaat and Shibir activists. Police said the procession was brought out "without any permission".
Around 1000 Jamaat and Shibir men gathered at Prabartak crossing near the morgue of Chittagong Medical College Hospital where the autopsy of Masum was done. Jamaat and Shibir claimed that Masum was a Shibir activist and blamed BCL men for the killing, demanding exemplary punishment of the culprits. However, the family members of the victim refuted Shibir's claim saying Mahiuddin had no connections with Jamaat-Shibir politics.
Md Fazlul Qader, father of the deceased, told this correspondent that his family is loyal to Awami League. None of his family members are involved in Jamaat-Shibir politics. "My son had no connection with Shibir. We are Awami League supporters. I want nobody to gain political advantage out of my son's body." Fazlul Qader filed a case Thursday night with the railway (GRP) police against a group of 6-7 unidentified assailants. Provost Hossain Kabir of Alaol Hall, to which Mahiuddin belonged, told that Mahiuddin was an innocent boy and was never seen to be involved in Shibir politics.
In Sylhet, at least 27 people, including policemen and journalists, were injured in clashes between the activists of Jamaat-Shibir and law-enforcers in the city's Court Point and Chouhatta areas yesterday.
Local sources said Jamaat and Shibir brought out a procession from Court point after Jum'a prayers as part of their central programme in protest against the killing of Shibir activists in Chapainawabganj and Chittagong, and the arrest of Rajshahi city Jamaat Ameer Ataur Rahman.
They locked in a clash with police at about 2 PM as the law-enforcers tried to disperse the procession. A chase and counter-chase took place during the melee, leaving five people injured.
Later, the Jamaat-Shibir activists regrouped and tried to hold a rally at Chouhatta at about 2:30 PM. Fresh clash erupted as the law-enforcers tried to disperse the gathering.Again a chase and counter-chase took place during the half an-hour skirmish that left 22 people, including eight journalists, three policemen and a RAB official injured.
The injured newsmen were identified as Shabbir Ahmed Foyez of the daily Shyamal Sylhet, Askar Amin Laskar Rabbi of the daily Kaler Kantha, CM Maruf and Belayet Hossain of the daily Jalalabad, S Suton Singh of the daily Uttorpurbo, Moynul Haque of ntv, Sohag Ahmed of Channel i and Emdad Hossain Chowdhury Dipu of Bangla Vision."The area turned into a veritable battlefield," said a spot account of the incident.
The Jamaat-Shibir activists also vandalised RN Tower Shopping Mall and an ATM booth of the One Bank.Police picked up 18 leaders and activists of Jamaat-Shibir, including Jubayer from the spot. They, later, freed six people, including Jubayer, showing others arrested
In Tangail, police held 14 activists of Chhatra Shibir from different messes, but later freed them following interrogation. A bomb exploded at the dormitory of the Residential School and College at Kautoli in the district town of Brahmanbaria Thursday night.
Police said the bomb blasted in a room on the third floor of the hostel when the students were taking dinner in the dining room at about 11:30pm. No causalty was reported.Police detained five suspected Islamic Chhatra Shibir activists and two office staffs suspecting their involvement with keeping the bomb in the dormitory.
http://www.ittefaq.com/issues/2010/02/13/news0690.htm
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