Published : 02 Oct 2026, 09:23 PM
Updated : 02 Oct 2026, 09:23 PM
Jamaat-e-Islami has accused authorities of arresting its leader Mohammad Aktaruzzaman Ranjan on a "flimsy pretext," demanding the case against him be withdrawn and for his immediate release.
The party’s Secretary General Mia Golam Porwar raised the objection in a statement on Friday evening, hours after Akhtaruzzaman was arrested at his home in Dhaka’s Cantonment.
Porwar called for an impartial probe into the ordeal faced by Aktaruzzaman and numerous other passengers at Shahjalal International Airport, and demanded that those responsible for the harassment and mismanagement be identified and face “effective action”.
Aktaruzzaman, a former MP and freedom fighter, was arrested 15 hours after a case was filed against him over threats made to the airport's executive director and an assault on a security supervisor.
The case followed a video that went viral on social media showing Aktaruzzaman remonstrating over delays in distributing Zamzam water to Umrah pilgrims arriving on a Biman Bangladesh Airlines flight from Madinah on Thursday morning.
In the video, Aktaruzzaman is heard telling the airport's Executive Director Ragib Samad: "I'll grab you by the collar and throw you out, grab you by the collar and throw you out. You lot don't work, don't do anything, you land your posts through lobbying. Want a beating?"
Shahriar Alam Sajib, a security officer with the Civil Aviation Authority of Bangladesh (CAAB), filed the case at Airport Police Station around 3:15am on Friday. Aktaruzzaman was arrested that evening.
Md Selim Uddin, a member of Jamaat-e-Islami's executive council and the party's Dhaka North chief, said in a statement that filing a case over a “minor, flimsy pretext against a celebrated freedom fighter, followed by his hasty detention, is deeply worrying and an ominous sign”.
The statement said “VIPs and MPs had also endured long queues due to mismanagement at the airport, and that the case was filed out of anger after Aktaruzzaman -- a war veteran and veteran parliamentarian who made an outstanding contribution to the country's independence struggle -- spoke out against negligence in duty at the airport”.
"For a man without whose struggle the country would not have won independence, no responsible agency has offered an apology over a minor spat -- instead, a case was filed and he was hastily detained. That can, in no way, be called responsible conduct.”
It added that such a culture of filing cases on flimsy pretexts and detaining people was "no good sign" for the country.
Selim called for the immediate withdrawal of the case and Aktaruzzaman's release.
Jamaat's Dhaka North unit marched from Uttara's Jashimuddin Road to Airport Road in the afternoon and held a rally, led by Yasin Arafat, a central Majlish-e-Shura member and the unit's assistant secretary.
