Police claimed to have identified seven organisations which had played a vital role behind the violence unleashed by Hifazat-e Islam in the capital’s business hub, Motijeel on May 5.
Additional Inspector General AKM Shahidul Haque told a press conference on Thursday the seven organisations include Jamaat-e-Islami.
The others are – Nezami Islami, Khilafat Majlis, Khilafat Andolan, Jamaayate Olama and Islami Oikya Jote. Muslim League, despite its ideological differences with these groups, extended its support.
AIG Haque said these organisations belonged to a same axis.
The media briefing was arranged at Police Headquarters to shed light on the law enforcers drive to evict Hifazat from Motijheel’s Shapla Chattar on May 5 and the subsequent claims made by a human rights group in its report.
AIG Haque said, “I am a public servant not a politician. I will be honest. What I will discuss today is quite an old issue. You (journalists) have written a lot about it. The press conference aims to clarify this matter to the people.”
He said these rumours about casualties in the police drive at Shapla Chattar were being circulated to “protect the interest of a particular group.”
Hifazat-e Islami activists unleashed massive arson and vandalism at Motijheel on May 5 to press for their 13-point demand. Law enforcing agencies conducted a pincer operation during the night to evict Hifazat supporters from there.
Human rights group ‘Odhikar’ in its report claimed 61 people were killed in the late night drive at Shapla Chattar, but it refused to give any information about those supposed victims to the government.
Its secretary Adilur Rahman Khan, who was Deputy Attorney General during the tenure of BNP-Jamaat-e-Islami, was arrested on Aug 10.
Detective Branch has submitted specific charges against Adilur and Odhikar’s director Nasiruddin Elan for fabricating facts about the eviction drive.
The list includes names of 26 deceased but they did not die in Motijheel’s Shapla Chattar on May 5.
The AIG said 13 were killed in Dhaka before that operation was conducted by law enforcers, among then six died in attacks by activists of Hifazat-e Islam.
In all 83 cases were filed in connection with the violence that ensued throughout the day, said the police official.
“Hifazat is not steered by its own leadership. They are guided by seven groups, who all belong to one axis.”
“Those who are spreading rumours about casualties were not in Shapla Chattar that night. They were asleep at home but are causing confusion about this with a malicious intent”, said AIG Haque.
Police will take legal measures against those who are responsible for spreading these rumours.
He said no one died at the hands of law enforcers at Shapla Chattar that night. Police after the operation found four corpses under the platform where the rally was organised.
The police top brass said Odhikar’s report was motivated.
“A name has been mentioned five-times in the list of 61 so-called dead. The addresses of 18 people were non-existant. The list also included four names of people who were later found to be alive,” he said. – bdnews24.com
