Hanif told a protest rally by the Jatiya Sromik League during Tuesday’s nationwide strike by the BNP, “More than Tk 800 million changed hands for the Hifazat’s programme. Hifazat-e Islam took Tk 450 million. The transaction took place in Daily Amar Desh’s office. Its Acting Editor Mahmudur Rahman himself took Tk 40 million.”
Also the Special Assistant to the Prime Minister claimed the BNP and the Jamaat-e-Islami were making plots ahead of the Hifazat-e Islam’s rally saying, “The intention was to remove the government with the long march.”
Supporters under the Hifazat banner organised a long march to Dhaka, which concluded with a mass rally in Motijheel on Apr 6. The radical ‘Islamist’ group has a list of 13 demands that includes maximum penalty for ‘atheist bloggers’ and also seeks an end to unbarred mixing of men and women in public.
Home Minister Muhiuddin Khan Alamgir and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in their statements thanked the Hifazat for keeping its promises of a ‘peaceful’ rally.
Violence in the name of strikes could never be justified as a political programme, said Hanif.