BANGLADESH

Following daylong clashes with the Jamaat-e-Islami activists in capital Dhaka and Chittagong, police have arrested the party's acting secretary general A T M Azharul Islam.

Ramna deputy commissioner Krishnapada Roy told bdnews24.com on Monday that he was detained in the evening from the party's Maghbazar headquarters.

Detective Branch senior assistant commissioner S M Ashrafuzzaman told bdnews24.com the party's publicity secretary Tasneem Alam, central working committee member Mohammad Ijjatullah and six other members had also been arrested at the office.

He said they were arrested on charges of assault on police, arson and vandalism.

Azharul is one of the six senior Jamaat leaders who are charged with crimes against humanity during the Liberation War of 1971 in the International Crimes Tribunal (ICT).

Five other senior Jamaat leaders – party chief Matiur Rahman Nizami, secretary general Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mojaheed, executive council member Delwar Hossain Sayedee and assistant secretaries general Mohammad Kamaruzzaman and Abdul Quader Molla – have all been arrested and are now behind bars.

THE CLASHES

Rampant clashes between Jamaat activists and police broke out earlier in the day and continued for several hours in Dhaka's Bijoynagar and Muradpur in Chittagong.

The opposition activists in Dhaka set at least 15 cars on fire, including a police vehicle and ransacked another 25 at Dhaka's Bijoynagar during a fierce clash with the law-enforcers.

The clash in Dhaka has left at least 50 injured including police officials. Until 9pm, police arrested 78 while another 26 were arrested in Chittagong.

A Paltan Police Station duty officer told bdnews24.com in the afternoon that the clash had erupted after police had intercepted the pre-planned processions of Jamaat activists taken out from Motijheel and nearby areas.

The opposition activists, aided by student front Islami Chhatra Shibir, set fire to 15 vehicles, including a prison van, two motorcycles and some bus, cars and pick-ups, during the two-hour clash took place at Bijoynagar, Kakrail and Shantinagar.

Police fired some teargas shells to control the situation.

Superintendent Nizam Uddin of the city's Police Lines Hospital told bdnews24.com that at least 10 police officials have been admitted there with injuries sustained in the clash.

bdnews24.com senior correspondent Mohsinul Karim said police raided several buildings of the area around 5pm after the clash looking for Jamaat activists and picked some up.

CLASH IN CHITTAGONG

Adherents of Jamaat and Chhatra Shibir also clashed with police at the port city's Muradpur Monday afternoon.

They vandalised at least eight vehicles including two buses and a private car during the clash which started around 5pm.

The clash also left four police officials including Chittagong Metropolitan Police (Panchlaish zone) assistant commissioner Abdul Mannan injured.

Police and witnesses said the clash broke out when petrol police stopped a procession of over a hundred Shibir activists at Muradpur intersection.

Panchlaish Police Station sub-inspector (SI) Mohammad Akter, one of the injured, said 26 Jamaat and Shibir activists were arrested in the area following the clash.

Additional police have been deployed after the situation was brought under control around 6pm.

AC Mannan was taken to the city's Center for Specialised Care & Research (CSCR), a private clinic, with critical injuries in the head. He is now at the intensive care unit of the hospital.

Among the other injured SI Akter and Mannan's driver 'Ashraf' were released after they had been given first-aid while his bodyguard 'Ridwan' was admitted to Damparha Police Line Hospital.