‘Jamaat spreading propaganda’

The protesters from Shahbagh’s Ganajagaran Mancha on Tuesday alleged that Jamaat-e-Islami was spreading confusion by running propagandas relating religion with the ongoing movement demanding death to all convicted war criminals.

The spokesperson for the Mancha, Imran H Sarker, at a press briefing at Shahbagh urged everyone to raise their voice against the Jamaat propagandas.

The briefing was held in the evening in presence of thousands after the protesters handed over a memorandum to the Home Minister and returned to Shahbagh, now christened Prajanma Chattar.

The Convenor of the Blogger and Online Activist Network, Sarker also asked the people to take to the streets to press for the demand to ban Jamaat-e-Islami as a party of war criminals.

Propagandas were flying in the air after the movement of the youth at Shahbagh began on Feb 5 rejecting the verdict of the International Crimes Tribunal-2 which awarded life in prison to Jamaat Assistant Secretary General Abdul Quader Molla.

Programmes were also announced saying the protesters were degrading the religion. The demonstrators say Jamaat had organised these programmes.

Sarker said, “The battle is not against any religion, but against those who opposed independence and their organisations Jamaat and Shibir.”

He said attempts to brand the protesters as the anti-Islam were being carried out to thwart the trials of the war criminals.

“Bengali was called the language of Hindus to establish Urdu in 1951 and the War of Independence was called anti-Islam in 1971. Like that, our position is also being made controversial,” Sarker added.

Despite some of the rightwing parties’ opposition to the movement, some other radical parties had also extended their support to the protest demanding death penalty to all war criminals.

Sarker continued, “The anti-liberation war forces – Jamaat and Shibir – are spreading confusion by terming this movement anti-Islam. They are using writings of some bloggers from their personal community blogs for this.”

“I want to make it clear that the Prajanama Chattar has no relations with the contempt of religion.”

The Ganajagaran Mancha spokesperson also condemned defaming of Prophet Muhammad.

He blamed Bengali daily Amar Desh for spreading communal hatred and instigating violence and demanded steps taken against the newspaper’s Acting Editor Mahmudur Rahman.

He urged the people of Bangladesh to stand united regardless of religion and race against Jamaat and its student affiliate Islami Chhatra Shibir. “Everyone must play an active role to win this battle.”

The movement at the Shahbagh intersection stepped into Day 22 on Tuesday. They protesters had continued their protest only there in the beginning, but they began to hold programmes and rallies outside of the main venue since last week.

They held two rallies at the capital’s Mirpur-10 intersection and Rayerbazar Mass Killing Ground. The demonstrators are also scheduled to hold another rally on Wednesday at Motijheel.

The movement of the youths against the war criminals has spread across the country. The organisers at Shahbagh said that they were planning to visit the Ganajagaran Manchas in every district.