Hefazat council begins keeping aside Shafi’s followers

The National Representative Conference of Hefazat-e-Islam is being held in Chattogram's Hathazari upazila, 59 days after the demise of its Ameer Allama Shah Ahmad Shafi.
 
The council started at 10am on Sunday at the Shiksha Bhaban of Al-Jamiatul Ahlia Darul Ulum Muinul Islam, the central office of Hefazat-e-Islam, without the supporters of Ahmad Shafi.
 
The top leaders of the organisation will decide the successor of Shafi at the council.
 
Around 400 top leaders have joined the council from across the country.
 
Maulana Mir Idris, a member of the Central Conference Preparatory Committee of the organisation, said that all preparations have been completed for the central council.
 
Allama Muhibullah Babungari, senior nayeb-e-ameer of Hefazat, who resigned from his post of the organisation before Allama Shafi's death, is presiding over the programme.
 
Noted Islamic scholar Allama Shah Ahmad Shafi, the founder of Hefazat-e-Islam Bangladesh and director general of Al-Jamiatul Ahlia Darul Ulum Muinul Islam, popularly known as the Hathazari Madrassah, died on 18 September while undergoing treatment in Dhaka.
 
Since then, the post of ameer remained vacant.
 
Anas Madani, son of Shafi and central publicity secretary of the organisation, alleged that no followers of Shafi was invited to the council.
 
He told The Business Standard on Sunday morning that the council is being held without maintaining any rules and regulation of the organisation. 
 
"At least 60 members of the organisation known as the followers of my father, the founder of Hefazat, were not invited to the conference," he claimed.
 
Hefazat-e-Islam Bangladesh was formed on 19 January 2010. However, later this non-political organisation became a political factor.