Killing of Intellectuals in '71
Cops to quiz Mojahid, Saidur face-to-face .
| Killing of Intellectuals in '71 Cops to quiz Mojahid, Saidur face-to-face Detained Jamaat Secretary General Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mojahid will be brought face to face with JMB chief Saidur Rahman for interrogation in connection with the killings of intellectuals in 1971. It will be done to verify Saidur's claim that Mojahid had often boasted at Jamaat meetings that he was one of the masterminds behind the brutal murders of the intellectuals. A former ameer of Habiganj district Jamaat-e-Islami, Saidur made the claim during interrogation after his arrest in May. A top police official wishing not to be named yesterday told The Daily Star about the plan to quiz Mojahid and Saidur together. Saidur, ameer of Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh, is now on remand in a case filed with a Narayanganj police station and will soon be brought to the capital. The militant leader also told interrogators that Mojahid used to say he actively participated in the killings, added the official. Police arrested Saidur, his wife and three other leaders of the banned Islamist outfit in the city and Narayanganj on May 24 and 25. Saidur took over as JMB chief after the arrest of Shaekh Abdur Rahman in February 2006. Hailing from Kujagaon under Bahubal upazila of Habiganj, he got involved in Islami Chhatra Shibir, Jamaat's student wing, in 1977. He was the president of Moulvibazar Shibir between 1978 and 1980, police sources said. In 1983, he was made ameer of Habiganj Jamaat. Meanwhile, investigators yesterday started quizzing Mojahid and Nayeb-e-Ameer Delwar Hossain Sayedee in a case filed with the Paltan Police Station in February for violence and obstructing the work of the law enforcers. Sub-inspector Zillur Rahman, investigation officer (IO) of the case, took the two to the Minto Road office of Detective Branch at around 4:00pm. The Jamaat leaders had been in Dhaka Central Jail since being placed on 16 days' remand in five cases on Wednesday. The previous day, police arrested them along with Jamaat Ameer Motiur Rahman Nizami in a case filed for hurting religious sentiment of the Muslims. The IO however did not take Nizami to DB office for quizzing. "The jail authorities have told me that Nizami is sick and would not be sent for interrogation," he said adding that if the Jamaat chief feels better tomorrow he too would be taken for interrogation. Replying to a query, Zillur said the Jamaat leaders were taken to the DB office as the Paltan police station lacked sufficient accommodation facilities. ARRESTS IN LAST THREE DAYS Law enforcers have rounded up 365 Jamaat-Shibir activists from across the country in last three days, said sources at the police headquarters. Of them, 121 were arrested on Tuesday, 128 Wednesday and 116 till 3:00pm yesterday. |
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Law enforcers escort three top Jamaat leaders, Sayedee, Mojahid and Nizami, to a Dhaka court yesterday. Photo: STAR
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