Two years on, cops still investigating

In the last two years, police could not complete investigation of any of the 42 cases over Hefajat-e-Islam's May 5 violence in the capital's Motijheel and nearby areas in 2013, which left 13 people dead.

More than 50,000 leaders and activists of Hefajat, Jamaat-e-Islami, and Islami Chhatra Shibir were accused in those cases filed with different police stations, mostly Paltan and Motijheel, of the city.

In addition, 17,000 more Hefajat, Jamaat-Shibir men were sued in Bagerhat and Chittagong in connection with subsequent violence on May 6. These cases are also facing the same fate.

Police, government officials, relatives of victims, Islamist leaders, businessmen, shop owners, employees of different establishments and political parties filed the cases.

The leaders and activists of Hefajat, a qawmi madrasa based platform, created the mayhem setting fire to hundreds of shops, police outposts, and business establishments.

They were gathered at Shapla Chattar with a 13-point charter of demands including enactment of a blasphemy law.

Police could not specify how long it may take to complete the investigation and file charges in any of the cases. Seven were murder cases.

Spokesperson of Dhaka Metropolitan Police Joint Commissioner Monirul Islam told reporters at his office yesterday that the cases were under investigation.

"Identification of the accused in the cases is being delayed, as their number is huge and many gathered in the capital on that day from different parts of the country," he said.

He claimed that although they were able to identify the planners, financers and instigators, many supporters who worked as "foot soldiers" were still unknown.

Hefajat claimed that 200 of its leaders and activists were killed when law enforcers flushed the protesters out of the place, but the government put the toll at 13. Hefajat could not provide names and addresses in support of its claim.

Some accused including Hefajat General Secretary Junaid Babunagari and Harun bin Izhar Chowdhury, son of Hefajat's Nayeb-e-Ameer Mufti Izharul Islam, were arrested but they were released later on bail.

Babunagari gave a confessional statement disclosing the involvement of the activists of Hefajat, Jamaat, BNP and its front organisations in the anarchy.

Some BNP leaders, including Moudud Ahmed and Sadeque Hossain Khoka, were also shown arrested in the cases but most of them got bail later.