Ex-ISKCON leader arrested at HSIA

Former ISKCON leader Chandan Kumar Dhar, alias Chinmoy Krishna Das Brahmachari, was arrested from Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport area in Dhaka yesterday afternoon.
Rezaul Karim Mallick, additional commissioner of Dhaka Metropolitan Police and chief of the Detective Branch, said a team of detectives arrested him in connection with a case filed in Chattogram.
Earlier on October 31, a case was filed with Kotwali Police Station in Chattogram, accusing Chinmoy, spokesperson of Sammilita Sanatani Jagaran Jote, and 18 others.
Firoz Khan, the then general secretary of Mohora ward BNP, filed the case on charges of disrespecting Bangladesh’s national flag in Chattogram’s New Market area during a rally of the Hindu community on October 25.
Firoz, however, was expelled from the party over “anti-party” activities a day after filing the case.
According to the case statement, the incident occurred on October 25, when some youths reportedly placed a saffron-coloured flag over the Bangladesh flag on the Shadhinata Sthombho (independence pillar) at the Zero Point near the New Market intersection during a rally organised by the Hindus under the banner of Sanatan Jagaran Mancha.
PROTESTS
Protesting the arrest of Chinmoy, former divisional organising secretary of the Chattogram ISKCON (International Society for Krishna Consciousness), hundreds of people from the Hindu community gathered at Cheragi Pahar intersection in the port city around 6:00pm yesterday. They brought out a procession and demanded his immediate release.
Kazi Tarek Aziz, additional deputy commissioner (public relations) of Chattogram Metropolitan Police, said police have been deployed there to prevent any untoward incident.
In the capital, hundreds of members of the Hindu community, including ISKCON supporters, came out on the streets and blocked the Shahbagh intersection in the evening to protest the arrest.
Witnesses said around 200 ISKCON supporters gathered there, disrupting traffic movement. Tensions escalated when another group, armed with sticks, confronted the demonstrators, resulting in clashes.
The ISKCON supporters were eventually beaten and forced to leave the area.
Contacted, AKM Shahabuddin Shaheen, officer-in-charge of Shahbagh Police Station, said, “An unidentified group initially blocked the Shahbagh intersection, but another group soon intervened and dispersed them.” 
Processions were brought out also in Rangpur, Dinajpur and Narayanganj to protest the arrest.
Meanwhile, the Hindu-Bouddha-Christian Oikya Parishad in a statement condemned the arrest.
Its presidents Ushaton Talukder, Prof Dr Nim Chandra Bhowmik, and Nirmal Rozario, and acting general secretary Manindra Kumar Nath demanded the release of the Sammilita Sanatani Jagaran Jote spokesperson Prabhu Chinmoy Krishna Das Brahmachari in the interest of the nation.
They said the arrest has the potential to tarnish Bangladesh’s global image on the issue of freedom of expression and human rights.