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Bangladesh Government Arrests Jamaat-e-Islami Chief for Extremist Links

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The Pulse | Politics | South Asia

Bangladesh Government Arrests Jamaat-e-Islami Chief for Extremist Links

Political calculations rather than security imperatives seem to underlie the Awami League government’s decision.

Bangladesh Government Arrests Jamaat-e-Islami Chief for Extremist Links

Jamaat-e-Islami activists participate in a protest at Chittagong on December 17, 2022, against the arrest of their leader, Dr. Shafiqur Rahman in Dhaka on December 13, 2022,

Credit: Twitter/Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami

On December 13, the Dhaka metropolitan police’s Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime unit arrested the Jamaat-e-Islami amir (chief), Dr. Shafiqur Rahman, from his house in the capital over his suspected links with extremism. Police said that the Jamaat chief was “involved with the new militant organization Jamatul Ansar Fil Hindal ‘Sharkia. Rahman’s son Rafat Sadiq Saifullah was reportedly arrested on December 9. According to the police, Saifullah was active in the banned terror outfit, Ansar-al Islam, before he joined the Sharkia.

The Jamaat-e-Islami, one of Bangladesh’s largest Islamic political parties, issued an official statement condemning the arrest of its chief. It denied that he has links with extremists.

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