Top Islamic leader arrested

Top Islamic leader Mufti Fazlul Haq Amini, his son and 12 of his followers were arrested yesterday after a policeman was killed during a day-long general strike enforced by the country's Islamic groups on Saturday.

The arrest of Amini triggered fresh protests in the capital by his supporters in which witnesses said nearly 100 people were injured.

"We are also looking for Shaikhul Hadith Maulana Azizul Haq who was present at the mosque where the constable Badshah Mia was beaten to death," a senior police official said.

Islami Oikyo Jote (IOJ) Chief Maulana Azizul Haq was scheduled to address a rally of four-party alliance, led by main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), in northern district of Rangpur yesterday.

Police said Detective Branch arrested Amini, the general secretary of the IOJ, when he along with his son and 12 supporters were coming from Lalbag Madrasha to join a protest rally at Paltan at about 3.30pm.

The meeting was called in protest against "police action during Saturday's strike. As the news of arrest reached the meeting venue, militant activists went on the rampage and clashed with police in Dhaka.

Amini, also the convenor of the Committee for Implementation of Islamic Law, was kept in custody in the city's Ramna police station. Police said all the arrested persons will be produced before the court today.

Agencies add: Witnesses said yesterday's injuries occurred after police, using batons and teargas, moved in to disperse Amini supporters chanting demands for his release. "It's a hell of a situation," said a reporter on the scene.

Jote leaders alleged over 200 people were injured in yesterday's police action and announced plans for protest demonstrations across the country today.

Mohammad Salahuddin, assistant police commissioner, said police arrested 25 protesters yesterday. "We are ready to handle them (Islamic activists) appropriately," he told Reuters.

Police said Amini was held under the Public Safety Act, which allows police to detain anyone for months before laying charges formally.

"Amini will be interrogated as part of an investigation into Saturday's incidents," a police officer said.

The Jote enforced a day-long strike in Dhaka on Saturday to press for the repeal of a court ban on Islamic edicts involving women's rights and to try to foil a rally by non-government organisations which support the court's ruling.

Islamic militants killed one policeman in the capital's Mohammadpur area during Saturday's strike and assaulted at least 15 other security personnel, police and witnesses said.

Police said they had arrested nearly 60 militants, mostly students of a madrasha (Islamic religious school), in Mohammadpur, in the wake of Saturday's violence.