Another top Hifazat leader, Abdul Quader, arrested on violence charges

The police have arrested Ahmed Abdul Quader, Nayeb-e-Amir of Hifazat-e Islam and former president of the Jamaat-e-Islami’s student wing Islami Chhatra Shibir, in Dhaka for his alleged involvement with violence.

The Detective Branch of Dhaka Metropolitan Police arrested his in West Agargaon on Saturday evening, said Wahidul Alam, a deputy commissioner of DMP’s DB.

He is accused in cases over violence in Motijheel in March this year during protests against Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit and at Shapla Chattar in 2013, Wahidul said.

Abdul Quader is among a number of top leaders of the radical Islamist group who have been arrested in past few days after its activists unleashed deadly violence during Modi’s visit over his government’s policy towards minority Muslims of India.

On Apr 21, the law enforcers  Maulana Khurshid Alam Quasemi, assistant secretary general of Hifazat and Nayeb-e-Amir of Khelafat Majlish, Mufti Sharafat Hossain, a leader of Hifazat’s Dhaka Metropolitan Unit and joint general secretary of Khelfat Majlish, and Maulana Ataullah Amin, assistant secretary general of Hifazat’s central committee and publicity secretary of its Dhaka Metropolitan Unit.

The latest arrests of the Islamist organisation’s leaders have come after a meeting between top Hifazat leaders and Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal on Apr 19.

Following the detention of their Joint Secretary General Mamunul Haque on Apr 18, the Hifazat leaders demanded an end to a spree of arrests of their leaders mostly on charges related to the violence in 2013.

On Apr 19, the police arrested Qurban Ali, a vice-president of Hifazat’s Dhaka Metropolitan Unit and joint secretary general of the Khelafat Majlish.

Mamunul is the acting secretary general of the Khelafat Majlish, a political party. Known for his hate speech against the government, he also heads the party’s youth wing Jubo Khelafat Majlish.