Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal on December 3 said that the Government is resuming the long-stalled investigations into cases filed over the mayhem by thousands of Hefajat-e Islam (HeI) activists in May 2013, reports The Daily Star. He said "The cases remained pending for quite a long time. We have to finish them.” On May 5, 2013, thousands of members of HeI, a Qawmi madrasa-based Islamist organisation, clashed with law enforcers and ruling Awami League men, turning Motijheel and Paltan areas into a battlefield. They set fire to hundreds of shops, vehicles and police outposts and looted stores, including those with Islamic books. Clashes also took place in different other districts in the following couple of days. A total of 83 cases were filed in seven Districts including in Dhaka, accusing 3,416 named and 84,796 unnamed people. Many of the accused were from the HeI, the Jamaat-e-Islam (JeI) and the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP). Police have pressed charges in 18, and gave final reports in two other cases. Investigations of the 62 have been stalled.