Detained radical Islamist leader Mamunul Haque, a joint secretary general of Hefazat-e Islam, had links with the militant leaders responsible for the grenade attacks on an Awami League rally on August 21, 2004, said police.
While speaking at a press briefing at his office on Sunday, Harunor Rashid, Deputy Commissioner (DC) of Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP), also said that Mamunul had also visited Pakistan along with one of those militants to contact the terrorists and political groups there.
It may be recalled that at least 24 people were killed and several hundred others sustained grave injuries when militants made grenade attacks at the rally at Bangabandhu Avenue in the capital on August 21 in 2004. The attacks were made with an attempt to kill the then opposition leader Sheikh Hasina, who is now the Prime Minister of Bangladesh and also the elder daughter of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.
The police found evidence from seized mobile phone of the Hefazat leader that he had collected funds from Qatar, Dubai and Pakistan in the name of Babri Mosque, DC Harunor Rashid said.
He said, “Mamunul’s brother-in-law Maulana Mufti Neamat Uddin had been arrested over the grenade attack, but later he was freed.”
Mamunul and Neamat had travelled to Pakistan in 2005 and contacted militant and political groups during a 45-day stay there, Harunor Rashid said.
The Hifazat leader had been trying to make the organisation like a Pakistani group, he said at a press conference at his office on Sunday.
“He had political ambitions. He had been thinking about grabbing power with the help of the Jamaat (Jamaat-e-Islami),” said the police officer.
The radical Islamist collected “huge funds from abroad through bKash and bank accounts to use for militancy and extremism in madrasas and mosques,” he added.
After Hefazat let loose violence in parts of Bangladesh during protests against Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit , the law enforcers arrested a number of leaders of the group, including Mamunul.
The police now say that some Hefazat leaders including Mamunul are hatching a plot to create anarchy and destabilise the country.
These extremist leaders want to turn Bangladesh into a country like Pakistan or Afghanistan by establishing Hifazat as a group like Pakistan’s Tehreek-e-Labbaik, MahbubAlam, a joint commissioner of the police’s Detective Branch, said on Saturday.
Mamunul, joint secretary general of the radical group, is known for his hate speech and aggressive sermons in religious congregations and on social media, enjoying popularity among hardliners.
Earlier this month, the man gained an unsavoury notoriety after he was caught at a resort in Narayanganj’s Sonargaon with a woman who he claimed was his second wife. His claim was later disputed by the authorities.
In November 2020, Mamunul called upon the government to remove the statue of the Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, claiming statues are not allowed in Islam. Later, he clarified that he did not mean to disrespect Bangabandhu.
The police arrested the hardline Islamist leader on April 18 in a case filed with Mohammadpur Police Station in 2020 over violence.
