Bangladesh arrests Islamist leader after violent protests

Haque, 47, is a number one determine within the Hefazat-e-Islam group, which has a robust community of Islamic colleges throughout Bangladesh. The group says it isn’t a political social gathering, however its leaders of their sermons often speak concerning the nation’s politics, advocating an Islamic revolution within the nation of 160 million individuals. Its leaders usually problem the fundamentals of the nation’s structure and its authorized system, which is predicated on primarily based on British widespread regulation.

The group criticized Bangladesh’s Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina for inviting Modi to hitch a March 26 celebration of the nation’s fiftieth anniversary of independence, and threatened to shed blood within the streets to undermine the go to. Critics accuse Modi’s Hindu-nationalist social gathering of stoking spiritual polarization in India and discriminating towards minorities, significantly Muslims.

Modi’s two-day go to was overshadowed by the violence, and at the least 17 supporters of Hefazat-e-Islam had been killed in separate clashes with police as they attacked a police station and different authorities buildings, and blocked highways elsewhere within the nation. In Dhaka, they clashed with police exterior the nation’s essential Baitul Mokarram Mosque in the course of the go to.

In a speech to Bangladesh’s parliament earlier this month, Hasina warned the group and its leaders that they’d face penalties in the event that they proceed to resort to violence.

Haque and his associates led a latest marketing campaign towards constructing a sculpture of independence leader Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Hasina’s father, saying sculptures are un-Islamic. The authorities backed off.

Hefazat-e-Islam additionally desires Hasina’s authorities to enact blasphemy legal guidelines, beneath which anybody convicted of criticizing Islam’s prophet would face the dying penalty.

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