Syeda Munawara Qazi
Dhaka, Bangladesh: Dhaka Police arrested 2 former Members of Parliaments belonging to radical Islamist political party — Jamaat-e-Islami.
According to Police, they arrested two former members of parliament belonging to Jamaat-e-Islami and 11 other leaders from a flat in Mirpur where they were making 20 homemade bombs.
Nayeb-e-Ameer of Jamaat Prof Mujibur Rahman who is former Member of Parliament from Rajshahi area is already accused in 45 cases and Jamaat Assistant Secretary General Mia Golam Parwar (former MP from Khulna) is accused in 12 cases.
However Jamaat in a statement refuted allegations and said that arrests and seizure of the bombs was just a police play and that their leaders were framed. It may be mentioned that arrest of members of Jamaat is no more a news in Bangladesh as sitting government is allegedly taking revenge from Jamaat for genocide it committed during Bangladesh independence war in 1971.
According to police story, following a tip off, detectives and Pallabi police in a joint drive arrested them and also seized 20 to 25 bamboo sticks and Jamaat books on extremism from the second-floor flat in a building on Road-10 in Mirpur-11.
The other arrestees include Taslim, Abul Kalam Azad, Mansur Rahman, Zakir Hossain, Jahangir Alam, ABM Nurullah alias Mohammad Ullah, Abul Hashem, Md Sabbir, Mujibur Rahman Bhuiyan and Ashraful Alam Iqbal.
Bangladesh government is cracking down hard on radical Islamists due to increase incidents of extremism and killings of four bloggers this year. Radical Islam is becoming a serious issue in otherwise secular society of Bangladesh.
