Hifazat threatens to drive AL out of Dhaka

Hifazat-e Islam has threatened to drive the Awami League out of the capital Dhaka if the government did not accept its 13-point charter of demands.

Staff Correspondentbdnews24.com
Published : 5 May 2013, 08:06 AM
Updated : 5 May 2013, 08:19 AM

Speakers at the radical group’s rally on Sunday also rejected the ruling party spokesperson Syed Ashraful Islam’s call urging the Hifazat activists to leave Dhaka after their rally without causing any trouble.

“Mr Ashraf told us to leave Dhaka by evening. We’d like to tell them (the ruling party) to think before choosing a path after tonight,” one of the Hifazat speakers said. “We’re ready to spill more blood and God willing, we will return only after safeguarding Prophet Muhammad’s honour.

Earlier in the evening, Syed Ashraf had asked the Hifazat activists to leave the capital after the rally and warned that the government would not tolerate any chaos.

“If needed, we’ll stay at Motijheel for a full month,” its Secretary General Junaid Babu Nogri said.

Hifazat’s Joint Secretary General Mohammad Faizullah hinted staying put in the capital unless their demands were met. He said the organisation’s chief Ahmed Shafi would announce future programmes from the rally.

At one stage, tension ran high among the crowd and an announcement was made to maintain calm.

Speakers at the rally threatened that the Sheikh Hasina-led government would be brought down if it did not concede to the demands. They also demanded release of BNP-leaning ‘Daily Amar Desh’ Acting Editor Mahmudur Rahman, who is allegedly one of the patrons of the radical organisation.

They were heard chanting slogans demanding death for the ‘atheist bloggers’, launching a broadside against the organisers of Ganajagaran Mancha, the platform pressing for maximum penalty for the convicted war criminals.

Jamaat-e-Islami is allegedly backing and funding the organisation that is opposing the civil uprising led by the Mancha.

The top leadership of Jamaat, a key partner of the BNP, is standing trial for allegedly perpetrating such crimes during the nation’s nine-month armed struggle for freedom in 1971. Some of them have already been convicted.