Some leaders of Hefazat-e Islam have met Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal for the second time in three weeks.
The meeting on Tuesday night came as a crackdown on the Islamist group continued following violence during the celebrations of 50 years of independence.
Nurul Islam Jihadi, member secretary of the organisation’s newly formed convening committee, led a delegation of six leaders.
The others were Mufti Maulana Jasimuddin ,
Maulana Yahiya, Principal Mizanur Rahman, Maulana Mainuddin and Maulana Ataullah Hafezi.
State Minister for Religious Affairs Faridul Islam Dulal was also present in the meeting that ended some time after midnight, said Sharif Mahmud Apu, a spokesman for the home ministry.
Faridul said the Hifazat leaders asked for release of the members of the group claiming that they did make some mistake but the violence “was actually done by infiltrators”.
The home minster told the radical group’s leaders that the police were making arrests after confirming identities of the culprits from video footage, according to Faridul.
He could not say whether the Hifazat leaders who attended the meeting were accused in any case over the violence.
Jihadi said they demanded release of the leaders and activists of the organisation and reopening of madrasas that are shut down along with all other educational institutions due to the COVID-19 outbreak.
Jihadi was the secretary general of Hifazat’s last central committee dissolved recently in the wake of arrests of its leaders. He also led the delegation that met the minister on Apr 19 and demanded an end to the crackdown.
The home minister had said at the time that the police were arresting culprits after identifying them from videos and images of the violence.
Launched in 2010, Hifazat came into prominence after it opposed the Ganajagaran Mancha, which came into being in 2013 to push for trial of crimes against humanity committed during the 1971 Liberation War.
