Dhaka, Sep 24 (bdnews24.com) – Wife of Syed Golam Maula, Senior Advisor of the banned Hizb ut-Tahrir and Dhaka University Management Studies teacher, on Monday alleged that her husband has become a victim of ‘forced disappearance’.
At a press meet organised in Maula’s lawyer Monsur Habib’s chamber, Shahida Ahmed claimed that they had no idea about her husband’s whereabouts.
On Sep 19, Maula’s custodian Latif Ahmed submitted required documents of the Hizb ut-Tahrir advisor’s bail release to Kashimpur Prison’s Jailer Abul Bashar.
However, the jailer, instead of handing him over to the custodians, gave his custody to a group of people identifying themselves as members of the Police’s Detective Branch.
Shahida Ahmed said that they were in 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 DU Vice-Chancellor has also not been told anything, instead he has ‘disappeared’.”
She claimed that the DB Police on Thursday admitted before the Vice-Chancellor that they had detained the DU teacher.
“His family including me and our four helpless daughters are still not sure where he is, or how he is. It was better when he was in detention at the Kashimpur Prison without trial.”
Maula’s wife also called for intervention of the National Human Rights Commission and other national and international rights organisations for the release of her husband.
Golam Maula, son of late Syed Tajul Islam of Dhanmondi, was accused in a Mar 2, 2010, along with other Hizb ut-Tahrir menbers, in a case filed at the Uttara Model Police Station under the Anti-Terrorism Act 2009.
He was arrested on July 8, 2010 from Dhaka’s Kataban area 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 Sep 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 arrested once before on Sep 18, 2008 for suspected terrorist activities from Rajshahi along with 9 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.
The religious front has faced similar bans in many other countries including Germany, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and middle-eastern ones for its extremist ideologies.