A Cumilla court on Sunday asked Mamunul Haque, former joint secretary general of Hefajat-e-Islam and Mawlana Khaled Saifullah Ayubi to appear before it on December 23 in a case filed over delivering provocative speech at a mahfil in 2020. Judge Irfanul Haque Chowdhury of Cumilla Cognizance Court-7 fixed the date when the two Hefazat leaders appeared before the court in the case on Sunday, said Advocate Nurul Islam, a counsel of the state. Read: Charges against Hefazat’s Mamunul in explosive case on Oct 10 On December 17, last year, police filed a case against six people including Mamunul for organizing a mahfil in Chandina upazila of the district without the consent of the local administration and delivering provocative speech at the mahfil. On April 18, a joint team of Tejgaon Division police and DMP's Detective Branch arrested Mamunul from Jamia Rahmania Arabia Madrasah in Mohammadpur in separate cases. He was remanded for 18 days in six different cases over rape, vandalism and Hefazat mayhem. Among them, three were filed by the district police, two by the CID, and one by the PBI. Read: Mamunul sent to jail after remand Mamunul was held with a woman he claims to be his second wife from a resort in Sonargaon on April 3. Later, Hefazat leaders claimed that Mamunul went to the resort with his “second wife” where locals confined and harassed him before calling in the police.

At least 25 people including seven policemen were injured Sunday in clashes between hartal supporters and the law enforcers in Habiganj and Sylhet during the nationwide hartal enforced by Hefajat-e-Islam. Hefajat called the general strike protesting the killing of its activists and the "attack on them by ruling party men" Friday during anti-Modi demonstrations in Dhaka, Chattogram and other districts. In Habiganj's Ajmiriganj upazila, picketers locked into an argument with policemen as they were conducting patrols. At one stage, hundreds of villagers and Hefajat supporters started attacking law enforcers with domestic weapons and brick chips, the locals said. Also read: Hefazat’s day-long hartal ends amid violence, clashes Seven policemen including Ajmiriganj Police Station Officer-in-Charge (OC) Nurul Islam were injured in the clash. The hartal supporters also vandalised a pick-up van and torched two motorcycles of police. To take control of the situation, police fired 33 rounds of rubber bullets and hurdled brick chips towards the protesters.   OC Nurul Islam said, "Calm prevails now. However, additional law enforcers have been deployed at the spot. Of the seven injured policemen, sub-inspectors Polwel and Mujibur were admitted to the local hospital." Also read: Hartal: 30 hurt during clash with cops in Narayanganj Meanwhile, four teenagers were detained from Sylhet city during a clash between Hefajat activists and Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL) men. Five including two BCL men were "injured in the clash," Sylhet Metropolitan Police Deputy Commissioner Ajbahar Ali Sheikh said.

Members of Police Bureau of Investigation (PBI) arrested the prime accused  in a case over the attack on Hindu houses in Sunamganj's Shalla upazila from Kulaura upazila in Moulvibazar district on Saturday.

Hefajat-e-Islam followers Wednesday vandalised several Hindu houses in Sunamganj as a Hindu youth had allegedly criticised the party's Joint Secretary General Maulana Mamunul Haque on social media.

Nur Hossain Kasemi, general secretary of Hefajat-e-Islam, passed away at a city hospital on Sunday. He was 75.

Police foiled an attempt by Hefajat-e-Islam Bangladesh-led Somomona Islami Dal, a platform of the Islamist parties, to besiege France Embassy protesting the recent remarks made by President Emmanuel Macron against Islam.

Allama Shah Ahmed Shafi, the director-general of Hathazari Madrasa, has stepped down.