20,000 Jamaat-Shibir activists held in 4 yrs
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20,000 Jamaat-Shibir activists held in 4 yrs
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SATURDAY, 24 NOVEMBER 2012 AUTHOR / SOURCE: ARIF NEWAZ FARAZI AND HABIBULLAH MIZAN
DHAKA, NOV 23: Around 20,000 leaders and activists of war crimes scandal-hit Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami and its student wing Islami Chhatra Shibir were allegedly arrested in the last forty-six months of the Awami League-led grand alliance rule,* sources alleged.
Around two thousand cases, which the party claimed to be “false and politically motivated”, were also filed against around 2 lakh leaders and activists of the party, whose top leaders were detained in connection with the crimes committed during the Liberation War in 1971. Jamaat-Shibir sources alleged that during the period, ten activists of Jamaat-Shibir were killed, twelve Shibir leaders were disappeared including two Shibir leaders of Kushtia Islamic University, missing for more than ten months. Around one thousand and six hundred party men were tortured under police custody, more than eighty female activists of Jamaat-Shibir were arrested and ten of them were put on police remands, the party claimed.
They alleged that about six hundred offices of the party across the country were set on fire and looted.
However, Home Minister Mohiuddin Khan Alamgir on Tuesday said that police arrested some 2,500 ‘criminals’ and cases have been filed against 350 Jamaat-Shibir men under Speedy Trial Act.
The government has taken all out efforts to resist Jamaat-e-Islami and Islami Chhatra Shibir, he vowed
“We hope, after the completion of the trial, the troublemakers will stop. The fundamental forces as well as Jamaat-Shibir were involved in Ramu violence,” Alamgir told journalists recently.
Islami Chhatra Shibir (ICS) is the student wing of Jamaat-e-Islami* and directly funded by them, according to the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START)) which was established in 2005 as the United States Department of Homeland Security Center of Excellence, tasked with utilising state-of-the-art theories, methods, and data from the social and behavioral sciences to improve the understanding of the origins, dynamics, and social and psychological impacts of terrorism.
Although ICS is legal, and a member of legitimate organisations such as the International Islamic Federation of Student Organisations (IIFSO), Islami Chhatra Shibir is extremely militant and has been linked to numerous acts of violence over the years. In addition, the group has also been linked to a number of larger terrorist organisations both in Bangladesh, and internationally, the US organisation claimed.
Top Jamaat leaders including former party chief Professor Ghulam Azam, top leaders Moulana Matiur Rahman Nizami, Moulana Abdus Subhan, Moulana Delwar Hossain Sayedee, Ali Ahsan Md Mujahid, Md Kamaruzzaman, Abdul Kader Mollah, ATM Azharul Islam and Mir Quasem Ali are now facing war crimes trial for their alleged involvement in various crimes during the Liberation War.
According to the sources, Nizami was arrested on June 29 in 2010 and currently he has nine cases and was put on 24 days’ remand.
Sayedee was arrested on June 29 in 2010 and has twelve cases and was on 31 days’ remand.
Mujahid was arrested on June 29 in 2010 from Faridpur and he has 10 cases and was on 27 days’ remand.
Both Kamaruzzaman and Abdul Kader Mollah were arrested on July 13 in 2010 and they were shown arrested in five cases and were put on 15 days’ remand separately.
Besides, Acting Amir of Jamaat Mukbul Ahmed, acting secretary general Dr Shafikur Rahman, assistant secretary general Mujibur Rahman and Dhaka City Amir Rafikul Islam, secretary Nurul Islam Bulbul were accused in several cases including attacking on law enforcers.
According to the official websites of Shibir, their 10 activists of the capital city are traceless who were arrested by the Detective Branch of Dhaka Metropolitan Police from a student hostel on Monday night.
Names of the traceless Shibir leaders are: Iqbal, Yasir Arafat, Shakawat, Jubaer, Abu Ahmed Raju, Abu Naser, Sharif, Yunus, Delwar and anonymous another one.
In a recent joint statement, the Central President of Chhatra Shibir Md Delwar Hussen and the Secretary General Abdul Jabbar said, “The police are ceaselessly violating the law and in these contemporary times, human rights are being severely infringed.”
The leaders further said, “Shibir is out in the field with firm decision of the highest sacrifice. Shibir leaders and activists will not hesitate to lay down their lives to streamline the movement against the oppressive government.”
