Dhaka: Globally banned Islamist outfit
Hizb ut-Tahrir`s Bangladesh unit chief coordinator, a
professor at the elite Dhaka University, has been arrested on
charges of instigating "subversive activities" in the country,
officials said.
"We brought him under our custody for questioning" as
Mohiuddin Ahmed was remanded in custody for three days on an
order by a Dhaka court, a police official told agency.
He said Ahmed, a professor of business administration
of premier Dhaka University, was faced with two cases for his
alleged attempts to reorganise the outfit which was banned in
October last year "in the interests of public security".
Court officials said Ahmed was escorted to the
downtown court complex under heavy security escorts soon after
his arrest from his residence in central part of the city
while Metropolitan Magistrate Roksana Begum granted three days
for interrogation against a police prayer for 14 days.
Ahmed`s arrest came three days after Dhaka police
detained three Hizb ut-Tahrir activists from Dhaka`s Uttara
area with two petrol bombs and huge number of "provocative
leaflets and festoons".
Dhaka University earlier sent Ahmed to "forced leave"
for indefinite period, days after the ban on his organisation
was enforced to "keep him (Ahmed) out of the campus to
maintain campus peace".
"Any teacher of Dhaka University can take part
independently in any political activities. Mohiuddin (Ahmed)
has so far done no more than that ... But now it is something
else since the government has disbanded his organisation,"
vice chancellor Professor Arefin Siddiqui had said.
Tahrir is an international Islamist political party
founded in Jerusalem in 1953 and the outfit launched its
Bangladesh chapter in 2000 while in initial stage it confined
its activities within indoor meetings but subsequently it was
found to be engaged in violent street protests.
Officials said the organisation is banned in 20
nations, including Pakistan and the US, for suspected links
with militancy while it was the fifth organisation in
Bangladesh to face the ban after Jama`atul Mujahideen
Bangladesh (JMB), Harkatul Jihad al Islami (HuJI), Jagrata
Muslim Janata Bangladesh and Shahadat-e al Hikma.
Home Minister Sahara Khatun earlier told reporters
that the organisation "has been carrying out anti-state,
anti-government, anti-people and anti-democratic activities
for long in the country" while steps were underway also to ban
several other extremist groups gradually.
Earlier, police foiled an attempt by Tahrir to stage a
press conference after the ban while law minister Shafique
Ahmed said the outfit did not have any scope to seek to
overturn the ban in court as it was done within the
constitutional mandate of the government.
PTI
