| Submit your comments on this article | |
| Bangladesh | |
| 2 Hizbut offices raided | |
| 2009-10-26 | |
| [Bangla Daily Star] Police yesterday raided the Dhaka central office and Sylhet divisional office of recently banned Islamist organisation Hizb ut-Tahrir Bangladesh, and seized its publications, and various other documents and properties. The same day Bangladesh Bank (BB) issued an order to all banks across the country to freeze all accounts of the banned outfit. The central bank gave the instruction according to the Anti-terrorism Act 2009 which empowers the authorities to freeze bank accounts of any banned outfit. The Dhaka University syndicate decided to send Mohiuddin Ahmed, associate professor of Institute of Business Administration and chief coordinator of Hizb ut-Tahrir Bangladesh, on forced leave indefinitely for his involvement with the banned outfit.
A large contingent of Motijheel police raided the head office of the banned outfit on the forth floor of Siddique Mansion at Purana Paltan around 12 noon and seized several computers, several hundred CDs, a large number of books, leaflets, posters, and various other materials. The raid came after a Dhaka court permitted it along with seizure of publications and properties of Hizb ut-Tahrir which the government had banned on October 22 saying the group is a threat to public security. After the four-hour drive police shut down the office. Motijheel Zone Deputy Commissioner Khandaker Mahid Uddin who led the drive said the seized materials will help law enforcers in their investigation. "We have seized these properties and documents on information that the banned outfit was planning to carry out subversive acts, and its leaders are some of the masterminds of anti-state activities," DC Mahid Uddin said. Police said the organisation has at least 24 publications and innumerable leaflets and posters, and that they collected books and documents about jihad. Since the banning, police had kept the central office cordoned off disallowing anyone to enter. Officer-in-charge of Paltan Police Majibur Rahman said, "The materials were seized after we broke the lock of the office which had been under our observation." Earlier in the morning, Sub-inspector Shahjahan of Paltan Police filed a petition with a Dhaka court seeking permission to raid the office and to seize materials from it. | |
| Posted by:Fred |