Islamic militants held in Bangladesh

DU teacher, 10 others held as militancy suspects
Source: New Age
September 19, 2008

The police arrested 11 members of Hizbut Tahreer, including three university teachers, in the Rajshahi city Thursday on suspicion of militancy and allegation of attempts to breach emergency rules.

They also seized leaflets, banners and posters of the Islamist outfit along with a microbus and mobile handsets from them. Professor Dr Sayeed Golam Mowla of the management department of Dhaka University, Ahmed Zamal, a chemistry teacher of South East University in Dhaka and Mamun Ansari, a teacher of the Northern University were among the arrested.

‘We arrested the members of Hizbut Tahreer suspecting militancy’, Akramul Hossain, assistant commissioner of city Special Branch of police told reporters. Other arrested persons are Masud Kawsar, Omar Faruk, Moniruzzaman Masud, Saddam Hossain, Akhter Hossain, Jahidul Islam and Mojammel Haque — all students — and microbus driver Jahangir Alam.

Plain-clothes policemen arrested them as they were about to hold a press conference at City Press Club at Sonadighi Mor in the city Thursday morning. They first captured Jahidul Islam and Mojammel Haque, two students of the Rajshahi University of Engineering and Technology, in front of the City Press Club at about 12:30 pm.

The rest nine arrests were made within few minutes at the same venue and all of them were brought to the Boalia Model Police Station for interrogation. ‘We produced all of them before the court’, Humayun Kabir, assistant commissioner of Boalia told New Age.

They were charged with distribution of political and anti-government leaflets under the emergency, the police said. The leaflets urged the people to take oath in the month of Ramadan to overthrow the present government and establish Khilafat— the authority of Allah on earth, the police said.

Hizbut Tahreer members were found distributing such leaflets propagating the same opinion among the people in front of Saheb Bazar Bara Masjid after Tarabih prayers at night, sources said.

Our DU correspondent reports, student activists loyal to Hizbut Tahreer brought out a procession in the Dhaka University campus Thursday denouncing the arrest of their central leader Dr Sayeed Golam Mowla, a professor of management at the university.

They, under the banner of Bangladesh Chhatra Mukti, demonstrated in front of the vice chancellor’s office demanding immediate release of Professor Mowla. Later, activists of some left-leaning student organisations and Awami League-backed Bangladesh Chhatra League also brought out a procession urging the students in general to resist the fundamentalist forces including Chhatra Mukti. They vowed not to allow any kind of fundamentalist students’ platform in Dhaka University campus.