Hifazat-e-Islam protests persecution of Rohingya Muslims

Hifazat-e Islam has held a demonstration against the persecution of Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar’s volatile Rakhine state.

Leaders and activists of the Bangladeshi Islamist outfit began protesting outside the Baitul Mukarram National Mosque around 2pm Friday.

The gathering covered the distance between the mosque’s north entrance and the Dainik Bangla intersection.

Police set up barricades to block traffic movement in several roads in the area, said Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) Additional Deputy Commissioner Tarek Bin Rashid.

Additional police were deployed around Baitul Mukarram ahead of the demonstration, before Friday prayers were held at the mosque.

Hifazat has been given permission to protest in the area between the mosque at the Dainik Bangla intersection, said ADC Tarek.

A rally was held outside Baitul Mukarram’s north gate before a procession was taken out from the area.     

Mufti Farid Uddin Masud, Mufti Faizullah, Zafar Ullah Khan, and Abul Hasnat Amini addressed the crowd.  

They demanded that Bangladesh’s border be opened to Rohingya Muslims fleeing Myanmar in face of a violent army operation that follows fatal attacks on the country’s border checkposts in October.

They also criticised the Organisation of Islamic Corporation (OIC) and United Nations over their attitude towards the crisis.

The traffic movement returned to normal around 2:30pm.

Army swooped on the Rohingya community in Rakhine after nine police officers were killed at three police outposts along Myanmar's border with Bangladesh on Oct 9.

John McKissick, an official of the UN refugee agency, recently claimed that Myanmar was seeking the ethnic cleansing of the minority Muslims.