Syed Golam Maula Given 5 Days Reprimand

Tue, Sep 25th, 2012 6:37 pm BdST

Dhaka, Sept 25 (bdnews24.com)�A Dhaka court on Tuesday remanded in police custody for five days Syed Golam Maula, Senior Advisor of the banned organisation Hizb ut-Tahrir and Dhaka University management studies teacher. DMP’s Detective Branch Sub-Inspector Masudur Rahman presented Maula and Hizb ut-Tahrir activist Maksudur Rahman before the Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate’s Court, after Maula’s wife on Monday alleged her husband’s ‘forced disappearance’. Magistrate Mohammad Muniruzzaman rejected the bail pleas of the defendants and remanded the two for five days after SI Rahman presented them before the court and pleaded for 10 days’ remand. They were shown arrested under Section 54 of the Bangladesh Penal Code over suspicion and their alleged role in planning to create chaos at the diplomatic zone in the capital. The wife of Syed Golam Maula, Shahida Ahmed, at a press briefing on Monday had alleged that her husband has become a victim of ‘forced disappearance’. She said that Maula’s custodian Latif Ahmed on Sep 19 had submitted required documents for the Hizb ut-Tahrir advisor’s release on bail to Kashimpur Prison’s Jailor Abul Bashar. However, the jailer, instead of handing him over to the custodians, turned him over to a group of people identifying themselves as members of the Police’s Detective Branch. Shahida Ahmed said that they were in the dark about the whereabouts of Maula since his ‘illegal arrest’ from the jail gate. “He has not been shown arrested in any case for the last four days. His family or the Dhaka University Vice-Chancellor has also not been told anything, instead he has ‘disappeared’.” However, after her press briefing, DB police on Monday night said they had arrested Maula on allegations of planning violence. DB Assistant Deputy Commissioner (Media) Gazi Rabiul Islam told bdnews24.com: “Maksudur Rahman was detained over the protest programme staged on Monday noon in front of the US Embassy. Maula was arrested at Gulshan in the afternoon according to the information provided by him.” Rabiul Islam said, “Maksud confessed that Syed Golam Maula was the mastermind behind the protest programme in front of the embassy.” Golam Maula, son of late Syed Tajul Islam of Dhanmondi, was accused in a Mar 2, 2010, case along with other Hizb ut-Tahrir menbers, filed at the Uttara Model Police Station under the Anti-Terrorism Act 2009. He was arrested on July 8, 2010 from Dhaka’s Kataban and transferred from Dhaka Central Jail to Kashimpur Prison four days later. The High Court on July 23 granted Maula a six-month bail. On Sept 19, Appellate Division’s vacation bench judge Justice Mohammad Abdul Wahhab Miah scrapped a prosecution plea seeking a stay on the High Court order. Maula was also arrested once before on Sep 18, 2008 for suspected terrorist activities from Rajshahi along with nine other Tahrir members. He was later released. A ban was slapped on the activities of Hizb ut-Tahrir in Bangladesh on Oct 22, 2009 terming the organisation as a threat to security. It has faced similar bans in many other countries including Germany, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and middle-eastern ones for its extremist ideologies. bdnews24.com/pb/kt/trb/bd/1821h