Anti-Hifazat shutdown underway

The 24-hour nationwide shutdown called by 25 socio-cultural organisations to thwart the Hifazat-e Islam long march is underway.

Staff Correspondentbdnews24.com
Published : 5 April 2013, 07:12 AM
Updated : 5 April 2013, 12:04 PM

Demonstrators have also renewed the call for outlawing the Jamaat-e-Islami as a political party which opposed the nation’s struggle for freedom in 1971.

Earlier, several hundred people took out a procession at around 5pm from Dhaka University’s TSC under the banner of the Sammilita Sangskritik Jote and Ekattorer Ghatak Dalal Nirmul Committee. They gathered in front of the National Press Club and blocked the street there.

Similar processions started from Shahbagh, the epicentre of an unprecedented mass uprising demanding maximum penalty for convicted war criminals and a ban on the Jamaat.

The Ganajagaran Mancha supporters have taken position at Shahbagh and four entrances to the capital Dhaka in support of their 22-hour blockade programme that started from 6pm on Friday.

Bangladesh Workers’ Party and Jatiya Ganatantrik League supporters also joined the demonstrators in front of the Press Club. They took out processions in Paltan.

Pro-liberation Sector Commanders’ Forum, Ekattorer Ghatak Dalal Nirmul Committee, Sammilita Sangskritik Jote and 22 other social and cultural organisations also took out a torch procession from in front of the Press Club at around 6:15pm. They blocked the streets there.

Around the same time, similar torch processions were taken out at 350 Upazilas in all divisional cities, Sangskritik Jote President Nasiruddin Yusuf Bachchu said.

The shutdown supporters were heard chanting slogans rejecting the radical group’s long march and calling for a ban on the Jamaat and its student front, Islami Chhatra Shibir.

Ganajagaran Mancha’s spokesman Imran H Sarker urged everyone to observe the blockade programme just minutes before 6pm. Protesters there responded by blocking the busy Shahbagh intersection.

The demonstrators of Shahbagh picketed at Sadarghat launch terminal, Jatrabarhi Chowrasta, Tongi Chowrasta, Ashulia and Kamalapur Railway Station in the evening to prevent the activists of Hifazat from entering the city.

They were chanting slogans at the Sadarghat launch terminal for execution of the war criminals and a ban on Jamaat.

Imran went there at around 8.30pm and urged the labourers to tell the activists of Hifazat to go back from the terminal.

“Hifazat-e Islam is working for Jamaat-Shibir only to save the war criminals in the name of Islam,” he said speaking at a rally there.

He said the ‘militant’ organisation will not be able to save Jamaat and Shibir.

The Mancha activists left for Jatrabari at around 9pm.

Mehedi Hasan Toma, one of the Mancha ogranisers, said they would stage rallies at Kamalapur, Ashulia, in front of Jahangirnagar University and Gabtoli later.

Little-known Hifazat had announced a long march from Chittagong to Dhaka and a rally there on Saturday. They have alleged bloggers, leading the uprising, are ‘atheists’ and demanded their punishment.

The organisation is said to be backed by the Jamaat-e-Islami, two of whose leaders have been convicted of war crimes perpetrated during the 1971 Liberation War.

On the other hand, 25 organisations, including the Sector Commanders Forum and the Ekattorer Ghatak Dalal Nirmul Committee, have called a 24-hour nationwide shutdown starting 6pm on Friday to resist the long march. The left parties of the country have lent their support to the strike.

A group of supporters of the strike call at Jahangirnagar University have blocked the Dhaka-Aricha Highway.

A torch procession was also taken out in Chittagong at around 6:15pm from the Press Club premises.

Earlier the day, supporters of the Ghatak Dalal Nirmul Committee had taken position at around 3pm at the City Gate in the port city and kept the street blocked. Activists of Chittagong Ganajagaran Mancha also have reportedly positioned themselves at the Jamal Khan’s Press Club premises and blocked the street there.

In Dhaka, transport owners have suspended their long distance bus operations fearing violence during the long march and shutdown. Only a small number of long-route buses had left and entered Dhaka since morning.

Launch and ferry operations on the Mawa-Kewrakandi route have also reportedly remained suspended since morning.

Fewer vehicles than normal were seen on the city streets after the strike and blockade began in evening.

bdnews24.com Correspondent Ashik Hossain said only a handful of vehicles were on the streets of Shahbagh, Bangla Motor, Kakrail intersection, Motijheel, Saidabad, Jatrabari Chowrasta, Kamalapur, Malibagh, Moghbazar, Mohakhali, Agargaon, Shyamoli and Gabtoli at around 7pm.

”We see passengers thronging the terminal on other strike days. But there is not a single passenger today,” Mohammad Mofiz, a transport labourer, told bdnews24.com at Mohakhali bus terminal.

The scene was similar at Gabtoli and Saidabad bus terminals.

Kamalapur Railway Station Manager Mohammad Khairul Bashir said no train could leave the station on schedule after evening.

People were queuing up at the counters for both buying and returning tickets.