[Bangla Daily Star] Jamaat-e-Islami...
The Islamic Society, founded in 1941 in Lahore by Maulana Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi, aka
The Great Apostosizer. The Jamaat opposed the independence of Bangladesh but has operated an
independentbranch there since 1975. It maintains close ties with international Mohammedan groups such as the Moslem Brotherhood. the Taliban, and al-Qaeda. The Jamaat's objectives are the establishment of a pure Islamic state, governed by Sharia law. It is distinguished by its xenophobia, and its opposition to Westernization, capitalism, socialism, secularism, and liberalist social mores...
is going to observe a countrywide dawn-to-dusk shutdown today in protest against the arrest of its Nayeb-e-Ameer AKM Yusuf.
Yusuf, known as the founder of the infamous Razakar force that collaborated with the Mighty Pak Army in killing three million Bangalees during the Liberation War in 1971, is facing 15 war-crime charges.
A team of Rapid Action Battalion
(Rab) picked up Yusuf, 84, from his residence in the capital's Dhanmondi area on Sunday.The party announced the strike on Sunday evening just after the completion of its daylong countrywide hartal
... a peculiarly Bangla combination of a general strike and a riot, used by both major political groups in lieu of actual governance ...
in protest against awarding the death sentence to one of its top leaders Muhammad Kamaruzzaman by an International War Crimes Tribunal for crimes against humanity during the Liberation War.
International War Crimes Tribunal-1 issued an arrest warrant against Yusuf around Sunday noon after taking the charges against him into cognisance.
About an hour later, the elite force held the Jamaat leader from his home.
The tribunal heard his bail petition yesterday, and fixed today for passing an order on whether he would be granted bail.