Dismantling of Mancha flayed

Ganajagaran Mancha activists on Monday welcomed dispersing of Hifazat-e Islam functionaries from Dhaka’s Motijheel but expressed anguish over dismantling of their platform. Mancha has been asking for maximum punishment for convicted war criminals and outlawing the Jamaat-e-Islami.

The platform’s spokesperson Imran H Sarker said they would not go for any fresh programmes until Monday midnight respecting the law enforcers’ embargo.

After daylong clashes on Sunday across Dhaka, police and RAB in a 15-minute long operation cleared Motijheel of the Hifazat activists amid a blackout in the early hours of Monday.

In the early hours police also dismantled the media cell and other tents of the Ganajagaran Mancha, one of the organisers of the Mancha said.

“First they took us all outside the barricade. Then they tore down the main stage, media cell and other camps. The whole area is empty now,” Maruf Rasool said.

He claimed the police did not give any prior notice to them to vacate the area.

Imran Sarker condemned the move and said their demonstration could not be thwarted by dismantling their stage and camps.

Hours after that, the Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) clamped prohibitory measures banning all forms of gathering with effect from 11 am till midnight in the wake of tension after both ruling Awami League and opposition BNP calling for rallies in the afternoon.

Ganajagaran Mancha activists gathered at the Dhaka University to chalk out their future course of actions.

Sarker thanked the government for proficiently bringing the situation under control but wondered why the Mancha, which had been demonstrating in a non-violent way, was dismantled.

“Victory will surely come for the movement that was started with the spirit of the Liberation War,” he said.

Ghatak Dalal Nirmul Committee leader Shahriar Kabir alleged Hifazat, backed by the Jamaat and its student affiliate Islami Chhatra Shibir, had went berserk with the ‘support’ of Opposition Leader Khaleda Zia after her ’48-hour ultimatum’.

Khaleda had rejected Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s offer for talks to break the political deadlock. She set a deadline for the government to concede the opposition’s demand for a non-party neutral polls-time government.

Speakers at Monday’s meeting called the need to build the Ganajagaran Mancha anew at Shahbagh.

International Crimes Tribunal, formed to try crimes against humanity during the Liberation War, Prosecutor Tureen Afroz suggested bringing the Mancha under a legal frame.

“Dismantling it [the Mancha] would not have been that easy if it had a legal framework,” she said while also demanding a probe into the funding of the madrasas.