Arrest persons for 'fatwa' on housewife
HC directs police
The High Court yesterday directed the police to arrest the people responsible for imposing a fatwa on a housewife at Mirsarai in Chittagong.
In response to a petition, the HC ordered the police also to file a case in this connection, if the victim, Asma Aktar, had not filed it yet.
Advocate Manzill Murshid, on behalf of Human Rights and Peace for Bangladesh, filed the petition earlier yesterday following media reports. He sought necessary directives over the matter.
According to a 2010 HC verdict, causing mental and physical torture to anyone by imposing a fatwa is illegal.
After the hearing yesterday, the HC bench of Justice Salma Masud Chowdhury and Justice Md Mozibur Rahman Miah issued a rule upon the government to explain in four weeks why it should not be directed to take action against those responsible for the fatwa incident.
The court also asked the police to give protection to Asma, who had been hiding to save her life from those who issued the fatwa, and submit a compliance report to the HC in a week.
Mahfuzul Haque, a local union parishad member and the ruling Awami League leader of Nayduaria, along with some of his supporters at a village arbitration declared that stones will be thrown on Asma after putting her into a chest-deep hole in the ground, media reports said.
The arbitration was held on October 2 after Asma had filed a case against Mahfuzul and his aides on charges of sexual harassment in July. They reportedly abused her some days before the filing of the case.
After the hearing yesterday, the HC also summoned the officer-in-charge of Mirsarai Police Station and Mahfuzul Haque to appear before it on November 5 and explain their roles over the fatwa incident.
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