Jamaat-e-Islami Secretary General Golam Parwar placed on 3-day remand

Jamaat-e-Islami Secretary Mia General Golam Parwar has been placed on a 3-day remand in a case over the attack at the Baitul Mukarram National Mosque on Sept 7 last year.

Police will interrogate Parwar, 63, over the attack on devotees near the north gate of the mosque following Jumma prayers that day.

On Monday, police from Paltan Police Station sought a 10-day remand to interrogate Parwar at the court of Dhaka Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Asaduzzaman Nur.

Parwar’s legal counsel SM Kamaluddin appealed for bail and the scrapping of the remand but was turned down at the hearing.

On the day of the incident, Khandaker Arifuzzaman, one of the plaintiffs of the case under the Anti-Terror Act, saw thousands of Jamaat-e-Islami, Chhatra Shibir, BNP and Hifazat-e-Islam activists led by Hifazat leader Moulana Mamunul Haque gathered for a rally, the case document said.

The activists were planning to foil events organised by the government to celebrate the golden jubilee of the country’s independence and the birth centenary of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, to which the heads of foreign states were invited.

As per their plan, the activists gathered with local sharp weapons, guns and batons and attacked the plaintiffs and other devotees, injuring them severely.

They also blasted some cocktail bombs and fired two or three rounds of bullets into the crowd. In addition, the mob torched two motorcycles and looted the nearby shops.

The defendants had previously met in secret to plan for an overthrow of the government and had plotted to spread rumours before they struck, the case alleges.

It was necessary to interrogate Parwar over the allegations of creating instability, financing the conspiracy and supplying cocktail bombs and other explosives, the authorities said.