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SEDITION CHARGE AGAINST AL-HIQMA CHIEF

Home's nod didn't come in 15 days

Police seek more time from court

STAFF CORRESPONDENT, Rajshahi
The Rajshahi police once again needed yesterday to plea for 15 more days to file the second sedition case against the self-proclaimed Shahadat-e-Al-Hiqma Chief Sayed Kawsar Hussain Siddiki Raja.
A metropolitan magistrate court yesterday granted the time after police explained they were waiting for a home ministry response to an earlier request to press sedition charges against Kawsar.
The court also sent Kawsar to jail, rejecting his bail appeal, after he was produced before the court.
Detective police here have been awaiting a response since January
18, when a plea seeking the ministerial clearance was sent to Dhaka along with a draft of the charges against Kawsar.
Police had earlier been granted a 15-day extension on February 9, as no-one arrested under section 54 can be kept behind bars for more than three months.
"We will take a day or two to file the case once we receive the required ministerial clearance", said a Rajshahi Metropolitan Police official.
Kawsar was arrested under Section 54 for storming the Boalia Police Station on November 6 last year. The Joint Interrogation Cell has since quizzed him thrice.
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"We are not at all worried about Kawsar or his position, but we are really anxious about those who are guiding Kawsar," said an investigating source.
Quoting Kawsar, police said several lawyers and businessmen of Rajshahi and Chapainawabganj, as well as an Islami Chhatra Shibir leader of Khulna, have backed Al-Hiqma on various occasions.
"We are still checking his statements and keeping a close eye on certain individuals in the region," said an official.
Kawsar once claimed one of his patrons to be the Dubai-based mafia don Daud Ibrahim, but later denied the statement, saying, "I said it to gather attention."
"He (Kawsar) repeatedly became involved with Al-Hiqma even after being freed on bail in a previous sedition case," said an anonymous source, explaining why the same charges were drafted again.
Police filed their first sedition case against Kawsar on March 20, 2003, pressing a charge sheet against him and 11 of his links five days later on March 25. The case is now under trial at the chief metropolitan magistrate (CMM) court.
Sources at the court said the trial dates for that case have been kept shifting because the post of CMM has been lying vacant since December 17 last year.
"Simple metropolitan magistrates cannot hold trial of a sedition case," said a lawyer.
Kawsar and his organisation have a long history of run-ins with the police and the government. He was first arrested on charges of cheating locals on September 24, 2002. He started reorganising his group after he was freed on bail on December 21, 2002.
The home ministry then banned the organisation on February 9, 2003 after Kawsar, during a press conference the day before, described the organisation's plan to launch an armed struggle to turn Bangladesh into an Islamic state.