Mahbub Alam, a joint commissioner of the police’s Detective Branch, divulged the information teased out from the recently arrested leaders of Hifazat during questioning.
Hifazat leaders with extreme views were heading the section called Rabetatul Waezin, Mahbub said on Saturday.
They force organisers of Waz-Mahfil to call the speakers through Rabetatul Waezin, he said.
Mamunul Haque, a joint secretary general of Hifazat, was the head of Rabetatul Waezin and Rofiqul Islam Madani was added to the group recently, according to Mahbub.
After Hifazat let loose violence in parts of Bangladesh during protests against Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit over his government’s policy towards Muslims, the law enforcers arrested a number of leaders of the group, including Mamunul and Rofiqul.
The police now say that the Hifazat leaders were advancing a big plan the law enforcers had no idea about.
The DB of Dhaka Metropolitan Police is investigating around 50 of the cases against members of Hifazat, including 12 over violence.
Mahbub said they arrested 15 leaders in these cases and the arresting are divulging “important” information.
These extremist leaders want to turn Bangladesh into a country like Pakistan or Afghanistan by establishing Hifazat as a group like Pakistan’s Tehreek-e-Labbaik.
The Jamaat-e-Islam and its student wing Islami Chhatra Shibir are behind the initiative, he claimed, noting that Ahmed Abdul Quader, the Nayeb-e-Amir of Hifazat who was arrested on Saturday, had been a president of Shibir.
“Most of the members of Hifazat are involved with Jamaat and Shibir. Basically they are leading Hifazat.”
“They planned to put the government in a tight spot through violence during protests against Narendra Modi’s visit just like they had tried to topple the government in 2013,” said the DB official.
He also said leaders with more extreme views took control of the organisation after the death of its supremo Shah Ahmed Shafi last year.
Hifazat’s audio and video footages collected by the investigators contain evidence that its leaders were involved in activities against the state and government, he said.
Hifazat received huge amount of money from expatriate Bangladeshis along with its local financiers, according to Mahbub.
“We are searching for their source of money. The investigation is ongoing.”
Hifazat used innocent madrasa students as a shield because it is easy to use children in demonstrations, the police official added.