IOJ Chief Mufti Izhar Held: He Makes Counter Allegations
Daily star and other newspapers have reported that Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) yesterday detained Mufti Izharul Islam Chowdhury, president of a faction of the Islami Oikya Jote (IOJ) for his alleged involvement with a banned militant outfit, Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami (Huji).A team of Rab, led by Commanding Officer Lt Col Sazzad Hussain and Major Samad, second-in-command of Rab-7 detained Mufti from a madrasa at Lalkhan Bazar around 4:30pm.“We have evidence and documents proving his involvement with Huji's militancy,” Lt Col Sazzad told The Daily Star.“Mufti Izhar did not show up at our headquarters last Monday, despite being officially summoned,” Sazzad added.
Mufti had organised a press conference at his madrasa around 12:30pm yesterday where he claimed the five Huji members arrested at a hilltop training camp at Raozan last Monday to be "pious men and followers of Allah" alleged the Commander of Rab-7.Following the arrest of the IOJ faction chief, some of his madrasa students attempted to bring out a procession on the road at Lalkhan Bazar but police and Rab forces dispersed them. In the press the conference, the Mufti denied the allegation of those men being Huji members and claimed one of the detainees, Abul Kalam, to be a Public Relation Officer of his party. He blamed 'over-enthusiastic' law enforcers to have 'fabricated the identity' of the arrestees to tarnish the image of the government. The fact that they were arrested from a deep forest of Raozan was a lie, he claimed, saying, the whole drama staged to harass the Ulama (Islamic scholars and thinkers).Mufti also said Salauddin Hossainee, one of the arrestees was captured by some plainclothes men on 9 October from Sat Masjid Road, Dhaka and not from Chittagong, as claimed by the law enforcers.Earlier in November, detective branch (DB) of police arrested Mufti Izharul's son Mufti Harun Izhar and two of his associates for their alleged link to another militant outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT). Harun is now on bail and his cohorts were allegedly planning to attack the US embassy in Dhaka and other establishments, said DB officials.Meanwhile, the IOJ and Bangladesh Nejame Islam Party, in a joint press release in the evening condemned the arrest of their chief and warned to forge a movement against the government if Mufti Izharul was not released immediately.
We feel the allegations of Mufti Izhar against RAB are serious. All these should be investigated seriously by the government and human right commission and human right groups.. It is not unusual for law enforcers in our country to abuse law. It is dangerous to label any one as HUJI or HIJBUT TAHRIR for political reasons. In fact we are also against banning any party. Only the offenders or law breakers should be tried..Otherwise underground activities will only increase.
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