13 Jamaat-Shibir men sent to Dinajpur jail on surrender

A Dinajpur court on Tuesday sent 13 Jamaat-Shibir men to jail, rejecting their bail prayer.

They are Foyzul Haque, 40, Joynur Rahman, 28, Nurul Islam, 48, Hossain Ali, 35, Ruhul Amin, 45, Shamser Ali, 40, Hazrat Ali, 42, Shahidul Haque, 45, Sohel Rana, 45, Farid Uddin, 38, Suruj Ali 42, Mozammel Haque, 40, and Abdul Gaffar, 42.

Court sources said the 13 men, belonging to Jamaat and its student wing Islami Chhatra Shibir, surrendered before the Court of Chief Judicial Magistrate Ahsanul Haque in the afternoon, seeking bail in the case for attacking Hindus at Kornai village under Dinajpur Sadar upazila during the parliamentary elections on January 5, 2014.

The court rejected the bail prayer and sent the Jamaat-Shibir men to jail.

Parul Begum, a resident of Kornai village, filed the case with Sadar Police Station on January 7, 2014. Police placed the charge sheet before the court in April, 2015, accusing 114 Jamaat-Shibir and BNP men.

Jamaat-Shibir and BNP men attacked the Hindus at Kornai village to prevent them from casting votes during the national election. They also torched houses and shops belonging to Hindus.

Two more cases are pending with the courts.

The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) pressed charges against 89 Jamaat-Shibir and BNP men on May 31, 2015, 17 months after the incident, ATKM Khalequzzaman, officer-in-charge of Sadar Police Station, said, adding that the 13 are among the charge-sheeted accused.

They have been on the run since the charge sheet was submitted.