Police arrest 16 Jamaat men over 'subversive activities'
The Dhaka Metropolitan Police arrested 16 leaders and activists of Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami – including two women and three children who were sent to jail and 11 men who were placed on remand for one day by a Dhaka court yesterday – from the capital's Shahjadpur area on Monday night.
The police produced the arrestees before a Dhaka Court on Tuesday and pleaded for a seven-day remand for 13 of them.
The arrestees were Hussain Bin Mansur, Mufti Rahmatullah Bin Tofazzal Hossain, his wife Jesmin Akter, AKM Abdus Salam, Saimum Jami, Abdullah Al Mahfuz, Hafizur Rahman, Anjum Bin Kamal, Nur Mohamad Monir, Salahuddin Sabbir, Abdur Nur, Nasir Uddin, and Sahera Akter.
The three others were underage.
In the remand appeal, the police said they carried out the drive and arrested the Jamaat-Shibir men from the office of Rahmatullah and Mansur, and recovered crude bombs and some organisational leaflets and literature from there.
The police also said they had information that the accused had stored explosives there with a plan to carry out subversive activities.
Gulshan Police Inspector (investigation) Shahanur Rahman said the Jamaat-Shibir leaders and activists were holding a meeting to plan subversive activities.
Abdur Razzak, lawyer of the accused, told the court that the arrestees did not store the crude bombs and did not plan any subversive activities there. They were performing Isha and Tarabih prayers when police arrested them.
Earlier on March 20, police arrested 54 leaders and activists of BNP's Munshiganj unit from Banani Club and said they were planning to hold anti-government activities.
However, BNP said the leaders and activists, invited by a party leader, went there to attend a social programme followed by a dinner.
Inspector General of Police Chowdhury Abdullah Al-Mamun said the BNP men were arrested in accordance with the law.