Hefajat Conundrum: Pro-Shafi leaders eye top posts in new committee Staff Correspondent Staff Correspondent
A day after the dissolvement of Hefajat-e-Islam s central committee, followers of its late amir Shah Ahmad Shafi have moved to secure top posts in the new committee.
Leaders of the Qawmi-madrasa based organisation said the government was backing the pro-Shafi group to take posts in the new committee. as they are sympathised to the government.
Most of the pro-Shafi leaders were not included in the dissolved committee.
Meanwhile, two cases were filed against Junayed Babunagari on Thursday in connection with the violence in Chattogram s Hathazari upazila during Indian Prime Minister Naranda Modi s visit to Bangladesh.
Banned militant outfit Harkat-ul-Jihad (Huji) is back, this time in the garb of Hefajat-e-Islam, according to intelligence reports of multiple agencies, including the police.
Huji was found to be involved in the three-day Hefajat mayhem that was carried out across the country from March 26 to March 28 in protest against the visit of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi . It [the mayhem] was actually a planned activity of Huji, according to an official of an intelligence agency.
Talking to The Daily Star, several law enforcers investigating the mayhem said leaders of Huji, which was banned in 2005 following the grisly grenade attack on an Awami League rally that killed 22 people, from which Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina narrowly escaped, a year earlier, started to gather under the Hefajat umbrella. It managed to gain some control over the Qwami madrasa-based organisation recently.
He, however, said that the organisation will run its activities in future through a convening commitee.
Meer Edris, assistant organising secretary of Hefajat-e-Islam, told The Daily Star that the decision was taken in light of the current situation and they will reorganise.
On November 15, 2020, Junayed Babunagari was declared Hefajat amir at the end of its council held at Darul Ulum Moinul Islam Hathazari Madrasa in Chattogram. Before this committee was announced, Junayed served Hefajat as its secretary general.
The council was held around two months after the death of Hefajat amir Ahmed Shafi, who passed away in September.
Soon after the formation of the new committee, Hefajat hogged the headlines as it strongly opposed the construction of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman s sculpture in the capital and made anti-government statements.
The central committee of the Qawmi madrasa-based Hefajat-e Islam has been dissolved.
The announcement was made last night by the Islamist outfit s Amir, Junayed Babunagari, through a 1.24-minute video message. The committee has been dissolved on advice of some important members of the central committee, he said in the message from Hathazari madrasa in Chattogram.
The Hefajat amir also said the organisation would run its activities through a convening committee in the coming days.
Hefajat has been under tremendous pressure from the government to restructure its central committee by removing from it those leaders involved in last month s mayhem in different parts of the country, several leaders of the outfit told this newspaper.