Police book over 5,000 Jamaat-e-Islami supporters for violence in Bangladesh

DHAKA, Bangladesh (AA) – Bangladesh’s Islamic party Jamaat-e-Islami on Wednesday alleged that its late leader Delawar Hossain Sayedee died due to lack of medical treatment in jail, while police booked over 5,000 Jamaat supporters for violence.

Jamaat-e-Islami’s vice-president, Delawar Sayedee who was convicted of crimes against humanity during the Bangladesh Liberation War, died in custody at a hospital in Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University (BSMMU) in the capital Dhaka on Monday night at the age of 83.

He was taken to the hospital on Sunday afternoon after suffering a heart attack.

The hospital, however, denied allegations of negligence in treating late Sayedee.

Sayedee was not only denied proper medical treatment in jail but was also not allowed to see his family members who tried to visit the hospital on Sunday, Jamaat-e-Islami’s acting chief Mujibur Rahman alleged at a media briefing on Wednesday in Dhaka.

He also alleged that police barred his followers from holding a funeral in absentia across the country, which is a violation of religious rights.

The funeral was held at the late leader’s hometown in the coastal Pirojpur district.

“Over 200 Jamaat men were arrested for holding funerals of our late leader Sayedee in absentia. Over 20 supporters were also wounded. The party supporters are facing growing harassment so that they cannot participate in any protest,” Rahman continued.

Police in Dhaka lodged cases against more than 5,000 Jamaat supporters, including the son of late Sayedee and three other central Jamaat leaders, on charges of attacking police and disrupting law and order, police confirmed Wednesday.

Salahuddin Mia, an officer at Paltan police station in Dhaka, told Anadolu that police arrested 16 Jamaat men for an alleged attack on police and violence.

He said three policemen were injured in clashes with protesters who tried to hold a funeral in absentia at the Baitul Mukarram National Mosque in Dhaka on Tuesday.

Coastal Cox’s Bazar police chief Md Mahfuzul Islam told Anadolu that police are assessing the situation and would take legal action against those creating disturbance.

At least one Sayedee follower was killed and over 100 injured in clashes with police in the southeastern Chokoria municipality of Cox’s Bazar on Tuesday.

Sayedee, a prominent Islamic scholar and popular speaker in Bangladesh and acclaimed in the Muslim world, had been in jail for the last 13 years.

He was serving a life sentence in prison for alleged crimes committed against humanity.

Sayedee was sentenced to death in 2013 by a local court known as the International Crimes Tribunal. However, the Supreme Court reduced the penalty to life imprisonment in 2014.

At least 78 people were killed in clashes with police and other law enforcement agencies across the country as an immediate reaction to the court verdict.

The crimes tribunal, set up in 2009, has been criticized by global rights groups for not following fair trial standards. Since then, it has delivered verdicts against over 130 people in over 50 cases.