Police raid Jamaat office: No arrest made
Tuesday, 26 October 2010
FE Report
Police Monday raided the headquarters of Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami to arrest one of the party's senior leaders who had warned the government of launching a counter attack protesting what he said its anti-Jamaat crackdown.
Dozens of policemen suddenly entered the party's central office at Boro Moghbazar in the city at about 1:00 pm and conducted the hour-long search. "We conducted the raid following a tip-off that several people were holding a meeting there with the plan for subversive acts," a senior DMP official said.
Acting chief of the Islamic party Moqbul Ahmed told reporters that the law enforcers were asking for former lawmaker Abdullah Mohammad Taher. "The raid might have been launched to arrest him (Taher)," he said, alleging that the raiders also confined him at the office for a while.
He also criticised the police action, saying raiding office of a political party without any prior notice is nothing but anti-democratic culture.
Seeking anonymity, another Jamaat leader said Taher had come to the office in the morning and went out just before the police arrived.
Taher, also an ex-president of the party's student wing, Islamic Chhatra Shibir, said at a programme last August the government non-democratically arrested their party-men only to destroy the party, threatening that their own reserve force will be used against the government at an appropriate time.
Since then, a number of cases have been filed against the Jamaat leader with different police stations in the country.
Police Monday raided the headquarters of Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami to arrest one of the party's senior leaders who had warned the government of launching a counter attack protesting what he said its anti-Jamaat crackdown.
Dozens of policemen suddenly entered the party's central office at Boro Moghbazar in the city at about 1:00 pm and conducted the hour-long search. "We conducted the raid following a tip-off that several people were holding a meeting there with the plan for subversive acts," a senior DMP official said.
Acting chief of the Islamic party Moqbul Ahmed told reporters that the law enforcers were asking for former lawmaker Abdullah Mohammad Taher. "The raid might have been launched to arrest him (Taher)," he said, alleging that the raiders also confined him at the office for a while.
He also criticised the police action, saying raiding office of a political party without any prior notice is nothing but anti-democratic culture.
Seeking anonymity, another Jamaat leader said Taher had come to the office in the morning and went out just before the police arrived.
Taher, also an ex-president of the party's student wing, Islamic Chhatra Shibir, said at a programme last August the government non-democratically arrested their party-men only to destroy the party, threatening that their own reserve force will be used against the government at an appropriate time.
Since then, a number of cases have been filed against the Jamaat leader with different police stations in the country.