By Sumi Khan
Dhaka, Apr 26 (IANS): A court in Dhaka on Monday extended, by seven days, the custody of Hefazat leaders Mamunul Haque, Junaid Al Habib and Jalaluddin Kashemi, in a 2013 case of theft, vandalism and massacre as well as fresh cases in connection with the violence last month.
Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Sadbir Yasir Ahsan Chowdhury extended the remand after the three were produced in court on Monday morning after their earlier seven-day remand ended.
The Dhaka Metropolitan Police's (DMP) Tejgaon Division arrested Mamunul, the main accused in the five-day violence orchestrated by his Hefazat and the Jamaate-e-Islami-BNP that left at least 17 dead, from Jamia Rahmania Arabia Madrasa in Mohammadpur on April 18.
Besides, 63 cases have been registered against Mamunul in Narayanganj's Sonargaon on charges of assault and vandalism against the police and three cases have been registered against 600 unnamed people.
Earlier, police disclosed Mamunul has close links with a Pakistani militant outfit. The Hefazat Joint Secretary General allegedly developed the links through his brother-in-law Mufti Niamatullah during his Pakistan visit in 2005.
Niamatullah was later arrested in connection with the August 21 grenade attack on Sheikh Hasina and Awami League carried out by banned militant outfit Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami (Huji) in 2004. He also had close ties with Maulana Tajuddin, who was sentenced to death in the case. Tajuddin also confessed that the grenade was sent from Pakistan.
A total of 19 top Hefazat leaders and around 800 cadre were arrested across the country over the March violence.
Police said they found evidence of huge financial transactions involving Mamunul and other Hefazat leaders following their confessions and also by examining their mobile phones.
DMP'S Deputy Commissioner, Tejgaon, Harun-ur-Rashid had told IANS on Sunday that Mamunul had stayed in Pakistan for 45 days in 2005 and studied setting up a module of a political party, which he later tried to apply it to Hefazat, as per his interrogation during the remand.
"Mamunul was collecting money from Pakistan, Dubai and Qatar, selling the Babri mosque issue in India. He and other Hefazat leaders later used these funds to train students at different mosques and madrasas in the country," he added.
At a separate briefing, Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan said that different militant outfits that were crushed in the past are now again trying to create anarchy in the country again under the Hefazat's banner.