The 20-year-old chief of the outlawed Islamist outfit told The Daily Star yesterday, "Please, put my words in your highly-esteemed newspaper and request the government on my behalf to forgive me and withdraw sedition charges against me. I will discontinue my party activities and devote myself to law study."

"Listen, I am withdrawing all provocative and anti-state remarks that I have made since 2002. I apologise for what I have said and done before,"

"I myself wrote all my statements given to you (journalists). Nobody else finances my party other than me and my family members," he added.

Kawsar also said his mother-in-law provided him with Tk 3,000 by selling a cow for holding the press conference on November 6.

Only a day before, on Saturday, Kawsar boasted of his party's strength. He had told the police and reporters that the law-enforcers would never succeed in extracting information from him.

Kawsar and five others will be taken to Dhaka today for quizzing by the Joint Interrogation Cell (JIC).

Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (CMM), Rajshahi, Abul Hossain yesterday placed them on a seven-day remand each. The other detainees are Anwar, 22, Mujib, 28, Mohsin, 30, Zakaria, 18, and Ismail, 48.

Earlier on November 6, the police arrested the self-proclaimed leader of Al Hiqma and five of his men after they stormed Boalia Police Station. The police also held the driver and helper of the microbus by which Kawsar brought his group to Rajshahi from Nachol in Chapainawabganj. They went to the police station to demand an explanation for barring them from holding a scheduled press conference at a local community centre.

The CMM's court yesterday, however, set the driver and the helper of the microbus free on bail. The arrestees were detained at Boalia Police Station under Section 54 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC).

FRESH SEDITION CHARGES
A top police official said they are considering bringing sedition charges afresh, this time more serious, against Al Hiqma activists for continuing anti-state speeches and activities.

"We will seek the home ministry's permission, a prerequisite to filing a sedition case," said the police official.

Requesting anonymity, the official explained that the question of slapping fresh sedition charges arose as the bigots were freed in almost all the three cases including a sedition charge against them.

Police interrogation

Under interrogation, the arrestees gave the police names of some other Al Hiqma associates and information about activities of the outfit, said the officer in charge of Boalia Police Station.

Of the quizzed, Anwar was the convenor of Nachol upazila BNP, while Mujib is the nephew of Nachol BNP President Mainul Islam. Mohsin is the brother-in-law of Nachol BNP leader Abdur Rashid Rocket.

Kawsar and his group have been on the police list since he was accused of plotting an armed movement to turn the country into an Islamic state in the sedition case filed on March 20, 2003.