Five people were detained near Taqwa Mosque in Dhaka’s Dhanmondi on Sunday (11 October) amid plans for the funeral prayer of former Bangladesh Chhatra League general secretary Mahfuzul Haider Chowdhury Roton, who died in India yesterday (10 October).
Locals said BNP leaders and activists detained the four behind the mosque in the afternoon, beat them and later handed them over to Dhanmondi police.
However, Dhanmondi Police Station Officer-in-Charge Muhammad Imdadul Islam Tayeb said the detainees were members of the banned Chhatra League and had been detained while holding a procession behind the mosque.
The detainees were identified as Akram, 25, from Lakshmipur Sadar; Sohanur Rahman Nabin, 28, from Parbatipur in Dinajpur; Md Ilias Mia, 28, from Zajira in Shariatpur; Md Mohsin, 35, from Dularhat in Bhola; and Md Noman, 37, from Banshkhali in Chattogram.
“No funeral prayer was held in Dhanmondi, and no body was brought there,” he said, adding that further details would be available after the detainees were brought to the police station.
The official Facebook page of the banned Chhatra League had announced that Roton’s funeral prayer would be held at Taqwa Mosque after Asr prayers.
Roton died at Apollo Hospital in Kolkata, India, at around 7am on Saturday while undergoing treatment.
His body arrived in Dhaka on Sunday and was scheduled to be taken to Chattogram for burial following a funeral prayer in the capital.
