[Bangla Daily Star] Police yesterday arrested Rajshahi city Jamaat-e-Islami Ameer Ataur Rahman in connection with the two cases filed for Tuesday's violence at Rajshahi University and the murder of Faruk Hossain.Meanwhile, police claimed to have recovered the body of an Islami Chhatra Shibir leader, accused of being involved in Tuesday's violence, at a house in Chapainawabganj.
The law enforcement agencies have started combing operations at all the Jamaat-Shibir strongholds across the country. They arrested 32 Shibir men. Six were placed on remand.
Rajshahi Metropolitan Police yesterday suspended another policemen in connection with negligence of duty at a Rajshahi University dormitory Tuesday.
Police arrested Jamaat leader Ataur, also an assistant headmaster of Loknath High School in Rajshahi, around 10:15am yesterday as he was going to school, Boalia Police Station chief Jasimuddin told The Daily Star.
Rajshahi Metropolitan Police Commissioner Nawsher Ali said Ataur was being interrogated and he was arrested after investigation revealed his involvement in the violence. "Only two days before the violence, Ataur presided over a meeting in Rajshahi city where many Jamaat leaders delivered provocative statements and we received information that he ordered the murder," said the RMP commissioner.
Talking to reporters at Boalia Police Station Ataur denied involvement in the violence.
Rajshahi city Jamaat General Secretary Abul Kalam Azad termed the arrest unfair and gave a statement protesting it.
As police recovered the body of a Shibir leader from a house at Choitonnaypur under Shibganj upazila in Chapainawabganj early yesterday, they arrested two people there.
The deceased was identified as accounting student Hafijur Rahman Shahin, 25. He was a student of Rajshahi Collage but the student welfare secretary of Rajshahi University Shibir unit, Jamaat sources said. He is the son of Abdul Mannan of Rajshahi town.
Superintendent of Police Nazrul Hossain said police on information raided Toufijul Islam Tanu's house around 2:00am. He said some Shibir cadres took shelter there after the Rajshahi University incident.
Sensing the presence of police, they fired a shot, said police adding that policemen heard the shot and entered the house and found a body lying on the floor.
Police also arrested house owner and local Jamaat leader Toufijul Islam Tanu and his son Shibir leader Mahfuzur Rahman, 27.
Fazlur Rahman, Officer-in-Charge of Shibganj Police Station said police filed a murder case against Mahfuz and three to four unidentified people.
In Dhaka, Jamaat-e-Islami Secretary General Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mojahid blamed police for killing Shibir activist Hafizur Rahman Shahin. "Police shot Shahin to death in his sleep at his friend Mahfuz's house. This is an inhuman act. Now we are scared," he said.
Police and Chhatra League Rajshahi University general secretary on Wednesday filed two cases accusing around 600 Shibir activists in connection with the violence. Three days after the nightlong mayhem at Rajshahi University, an injured Bangladesh Chhatra League worker Kawsar Alam Sarker filed a case with Motihar Police Station accusing 24 Shibir men of stabbing him during the violence.
RMP yesterday suspended another police officer, in connection with negligence of duty on Tuesday at Shah Makhdum Hall where Faruk was killed, raising the total number of suspended policemen to nine. Sub-Inspector Anwar Hossain Babu, second officer of Motihar Police Station, was also closed to the Rajshahi Police Lines.
A joint team comprised of Rapid Action Battalion and police personnel rounded up 45 Shibir men between 1:30am and 6:00am yesterday raiding Rajshahi University and its adjoining areas.
Police arrested 32 Shibir cadres, 16 of them accused in the two cases filed Wednesday, from Natore, Rajshahi and Chapainawabganj districts in an overnight combing operation. The number of total arrestees is now 78.
Six of them were sent to a court yesterday and placed on five-day remand each.
State Minister for Home Shamsul Haque Tuku said, "The law enforcement agencies have been ordered to launch a combing operation at Rajshahi University areas and educational institutions known as strongholds of Jamaat-Shibir."
He told this to reporters after a special meeting with heads of the law enforcement agencies at the home ministry.
The meeting was convened in the backdrop of Tuesday's violence at Rajshahi University and the killing of Faruk Hossain, a final year student of the university's mathematics department. Faruk was an activist of Chhatra League, the student front of ruling Awami League.
The university and villages around its campus are known as strongholds of Jamaat-Shibir.
"Jamaat-Shibir men are involved in the acts of cruelty. Police will conduct operations in different universities, colleges and educational institutions where the anti-liberation forces have strong bases," Tuku said.
Police raided over 50 messes dominated by Shibir in the port city early yesterday.
However, none was actually arrested in the drive.
Police sources said half the Shibir activists had already left the messes while some of them were found completely empty during the drive.
They picked up five people but later released them, said Chittagong Metropolitan Police Deputy Commissioner (north) Banaj Kumar Majumder.
He said police served forms at the messes for filling up by all the residents of the messes. As per a government order, the residents require to provide their father's and mother's names, addresses, names of the educational institutions they go to, their roll numbers, voter ID numbers, employers names and addresses, and a few more important information in the form.
"The residents were asked to submit the forms within two days and after getting the information we would monitor their activities," he said.
At a protest rally on Rajshahi University campus yesterday Chhatra League demanded immediate removal of university Vice-Chancellor Prof Abdus Sobhan and held the university authorities responsible for failing to provide security to students.
Our staff correspondents in Rajshahi and Chittagong, our correspondent in Chapainawabganj, our Rajshahi University correspondent and United News of Bangladesh contributed to this report.