Hefazat leader Shahinur Pasha Chowdhury arrested

A team of Detective Branch (DB) of police arrested Hefazat-e-Islam central leader and former MP from Sunamganj-3 constituency Maulana Shahinur Pasha Chowdhury from his Bonkalapara residence in Sylhet in the small hours of Friday.

Shahinur Pasha was the central legal affairs secretary of Hefazat’s recently abolished committee and central vice president of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam Bangladesh.

Speaking to Prothom Alo, Bonkalapara Abbasi Jam-e-Masjid committee secretary Abdul Mukit said some people “arrested” him from his residence around 12:45 am.

Sylhet Metropolitan Police (SMP) additional commissioner (media) BM Ashraf Ullah declined to say anything regarding the arrest of Maulana Shahinur Pasha Chowdhury.

However, a source of SMP told Prothom Alo that Shahinur Pasha is accused in more than one lawsuit over the violence Islamist hardliner Hefazat carried out in 2013. Shahinur Pasha has been arrested amid the ongoing countrywide crackdown against the Hefazat leaders since the violence and arson attack at different places of the country in March.

However, it could not be learned in which case Maulana Shahinur Pasha has been arrested. A source confirmed that the DB team left Sylhet for Dhaka immediately after arresting Shahinur Pasha at night.

Shahinur Pasha was elected an MP from a Sylhet constituency after the death of former foreign minister Abdus Samad Azad during the 4-party alliance government.