HuJI leader remanded for 4 days

Golam Mostafa, a radical Islamist and member of the banned outfit, Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami (HuJI) has been sent to police remand for questioning.

A Dhaka court has allowed the police four days to question the Islamist radical.

Mostafa, was arrested for the second time on Friday from Sylhet for trying to organise and strengthen the banned outfit secretly.

Police took him to Dhaka’s Chief Metropolitan Magistrate’s Court later in the day and appealed for 10 days’ remand but magistrate Abdus Salam granted four.

Mostafa is an enlisted militant with the British government.

He has a money laundering case and another under Terrorism Act filed against him in London, Dhaka Metropolitan Police commissioner AKM Shahidul Haque told a press briefing on Friday.

Golam Mostafa has lived in England for a long time.

Haque came to Bangladesh when the London police ran several drives to arrest him, said the DMP official.

The alleged militant was first arrested on Dec 2, 2007 from a house in the capital’s Bashundhara residential area, which is also Dhaka’s diplomatic zone.

A British passport, a pistol and five jihadist books were also recovered from his possession.

Mostafa was sentenced to 17 years in prison in Bangladesh but managed to get bail from the High Court.

The DMP commissioner said Mostafa started tidying up HuJI and became involved in different criminal acts after he got out of jail.

He also tried to free other HuJI leaders including its top-ranking leader Abdus Salam who is at present behind bars.

Mostafa directly participated in the war against Soviet Union in Afghanistan.

Bangladesh police will request the Interpol to provide more information on the alleged militant, Haque said.

The police, based on Mostafa’s information, have seized some jihad-related books from his father-in-law’s house in the capital’s Hazaribagh.