Bangladesh’s Islamic party Jamaat-e-Islami has alleged that its late leader Allama Delawar Hossain Sayeedi died due to lack of medical treatment in jail, while police have booked over 5,000 Jamaat supporters for “violence.”
Jamaat-e-Islami’s vice-president, who was convicted of crimes against humanity during the Bangladesh Independence War, died in custody at a hospital in Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University (BSMMU) in the capital Dhaka on Monday night at the age of 83.
He was taken to the hospital on Sunday afternoon after suffering a heart attack. The hospital, however, denied allegations of negligence in treating him.
But Jamaat-e-Islami’s acting chief, Mujibur Rahman, alleged at a media briefing on Wednesday in Dhaka that Allama Sayeedi was not only denied proper medical treatment in jail but was also not allowed to see his family members who tried to visit the hospital on Sunday.
He also alleged that police barred his followers from holding a funeral in absentia across the country, which is a violation of religious rights.
The funeral was held at the late leader’s hometown in the coastal Pirojpur district.
“Over 200 Jamaat men were arrested for holding funerals of our late leader Sayeedi in absentia. Over 20 supporters were also wounded. The party supporters are facing growing harassment so that they cannot participate in any protest,” Rahman continued.
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Meanwhile, police in Dhaka lodged cases against more than 5,000 Jamaat supporters, including the son of the late Allama Sayedee and three other central Jamaat leaders, on charges of attacking police and disrupting law and order, police confirmed on Wednesday.
Salahuddin Mia, an officer at Paltan police station in Dhaka, told Anadolu Agency that police arrested 16 Jamaat men for an alleged attack on police and violence.
He said three policemen were injured in clashes with protesters who tried to hold a funeral in absentia at the Baitul Mukarram National Mosque in Dhaka on Tuesday.
lAnd Cox’s Bazar police chief Md Mahfuzul Islam told Anadolu Agency that police are assessing the situation and would take legal action against those creating disturbance.
At least one Sayeedi follower was killed and over 100 injured in clashes with police in the southeastern Chokoria municipality of Cox’s Bazar on Tuesday.
Allama Sayeedi, a prominent Islamic scholar and popular speaker in Bangladesh and and acclaimed figure around the Muslim world, had been in jail for the last 13 years. He was serving a life sentence in prison for alleged crimes committed against humanity.
Allah Sayeedi was sentenced to death in 2013 by a local court known as the International Crimes Tribunal. However, the Supreme Court reduced the penalty to life imprisonment in 2014.
At least 78 people were killed in clashes with police and other law enforcement agencies across the country as an immediate reaction to the court verdict.
The crimes tribunal, set up in 2009, has been criticised by global rights groups for not following fair trial standards. Since then, it has delivered verdicts against over 130 people in over 50 cases.
Bangladesh gained independence from Pakistan in 1971 after a bloody war that lasted for months. The Jamaat-e-Islami party has been criticised for its alleged collaboration with the Pakistani army during the war.
Jamaat-e-Islami opposed the country’s independence from Pakistan during the war. Many of its leaders were aligned with the Pakistani military and were accused of collaborating with them in committing atrocities against Bengali nationalists and pro-independence activists.
SOURCE: AA
