Jamaat leader Akhtaruzzaman released from jail

Jamaat-e-Islami leader and former lawmaker Major (retd) Akhtaruzzaman was released from jail on Tuesday after spending more than a month in custody in a case filed over alleged obstruction of official duties and misconduct with airport officials.

Akhtaruzzaman, also a freedom fighter, walked out of Keraniganj Central Jail shortly after 10am.

Jamaat leaders and activists, including party lawmaker Dr Shafiqul Islam Masud, Kamal Hossain and Selim Uddin, welcomed him at the prison gate with flowers.

After his release, Akhtaruzzaman said imprisonment and torture would not silence him and that he would continue to speak for the people.

He is scheduled to meet Jamaat Ameer at the opposition leader's residence on Minto Road after his release.

Akhtaruzzaman was arrested by the Detective Branch of Dhaka Metropolitan Police from his residence in the Dhaka Cantonment area on 2 October.

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The case stemmed from an incident at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport on 1 October, when a 34-member Jamaat delegation returning from Medina with family members reportedly became involved in an altercation with airport officials over a shortage of luggage trolleys and delays in obtaining Zamzam water.

Security official Md Shahriar Alam Sajib filed a case with the Airport Police Station against Akhtaruzzaman and several others, accusing them of obstructing official duties and assaulting a security officer.

After questioning him in remand, a Dhaka court on 4 October rejected his bail petition and ordered him sent to jail. His subsequent bail petition was also rejected by the sessions court, prompting him to move the High Court.