‘Islamists’ call Sunday strike

After widespread clashes with the law enforcers across Bangladesh on Friday, 12 Islamist and like-minded parties called a country-wide shutdown for Sunday alleging police obstructions to their programme.

The platform’s leader Amir Ahmedullah Ashraf said they had announced peaceful agitation programmes after Juma prayers protesting against what he claimed were “indecent remarks by bloggers about Prophet Muhammad (PBUH)”.

“Police barred them and detained our activists. Incidents of injuries and deaths have been reported,” added Ashraf, also Nayeb-e-Ameer of Khelafat Andolan.

“We will observe a daylong shutdown on Sunday protesting against the incidents.”

Khelafat Andolan’s Organising Secretary Fakhrul Islam said they will hold agitation programmes on Monday.

Radicals, opposing the Shahbagh demonstrations, went berserk in capital Dhaka after the afternoon prayers and clashed with the law enforcers.

Similar clashes also took place in various districts including Chittagong, Sylhet, Rajshahi. Ganajagaran Manchas in the port city and Sylhet were also attacked. Suspected Jamaat-e-Islami activists vandalised the Sylhet Central Shaheed Minar.

On Thursday, the demonstrators at the Ganajagaran Mancha, demanding death penalty of all convicted war criminals and banning the Jamaat, announced a halt to their nonstop demonstrations for the time being and laid out a series of protest plans.

Speakers at Thursday’s grand rally warned the people of Bangladesh to beware of people who were using religion and manipulating the mass. They urged the people to thwart their attempts to frustrate the civil uprisings.

On Wednesday, Information Minister Hasanul Haq Inu said some newspapers were running ‘false propaganda’ by publishing anti-Islam write-ups in community blogs and some other websites. He said the government would take actions against the newspapers unless they stopped it.

He said the Jamaat and other vested quarters were spreading canard so as to exploit the people’s religious sentiments in a desperate bid to hamper the ongoing war crimes trials.

Imran H Sarker, spokesperson for the Ganajagaran Mancha at Shahbagh, had said the movement was not against any religion. He also alleged that those who have been using religion for political gains were running propaganda as they feared “possible extinction”.

Sarker said similar propaganda was also launched against the supporters of independence during the 1971 Liberation War and to legalise genocide, rapes, and loots in the name of religion.

Meanwhile, the demonstrators streamed back to Shahbagh after suspected Jamaat activists launched a concerted countrywide attack after the Juma prayers.

They said they would continue with their nonstop demonstrations at Shahbagh. Ganajagaran Mancha activists held the Jamaat-leaning Amar Desh as the instigator of the rampage and demanded the government detained its Acting Editor within 24 hours.