CPB blames Jamaat, BNP for mayhem

The Communist Party of Bangladesh (CPB) has blamed the Jamaat-Islami and its student wing Islami Chhatra Shibir for the trouble unleashed by the Hifazat-e Islam activists in Dhaka’s Motijheel commercial hub.

The Left party said the chief opposition BNP could not escape the blame as it had extended support to Dhaka-siege programme of the Hifazat.

It also came down hard on the government for giving permission to the radical organisation to hold a rally. During the daylong mayhem at Paltan and Gulistan, the activists also vandalised and set fire to the CPB headquarters.

CPB President Mujahidul Islam Selim at a press conference on Tuesday said, “Keeping the agenda of Hifazat in front, the Jamaat is out to unleash anarchy in the country in a bid to foil the ongoing war crimes trial. On the other hand, the BNP extends its support to such activities to advance of their public and secret agenda.”

The CPB leader held the government responsible for ‘its failure in ensuring public security’.

“What the Hifazat did was it waged a war against the state. We better know how to fight since we had fought for the country’s independence in 1971. They (Hifazat men) had plotted unleashing a large-scale anarchy using a surprise element. They planned to snatch the state power by waging an uprising like the Russian revolution.”

Selim said the government learned no lesson from the Apr 6 incident when the Hifazat staged the biggest showdown in Dhaka by Islamists in recent times and gave the government until Apr 30 to meet its 13-point demand or face a Dhaka siege on May 5.

“If they (the government) had taken any lesson, how could they allow the rally?”

The CPB leaders urged the government to ban Jamaat, Shibir and Hifazat.

The party’s General Secretary Syed Abu Jafar Ahmed demanded that all movable and immovable property of institutions under the ownership of the three Islamist groups be confiscated and the fund be used for rehabilitation of the victims of Sunday’s mayhem.

He claimed that a grenade attack was unleashed on the CPB office, Mukti Bhaban, during the chaos and the building was then torched.

About the damages, he said: “Five cars parked at the building’s underground garage were totally damaged. The generator, a room in the basement, the market on the first floor and a shop on the second floor were burnt into ashes.”

He claimed that they suffered a loss in excess of Tk 30 million due to the arson attacks.

Ahmed said many important documents of the party kept at the building’s first floor were also burnt.

The Hifazat supporters, instigated and bolstered by Jamaat and Shibir activists, set fire to police outposts, hundreds of shops and makeshift vending stalls, including dozens of religious book shops, on footpaths around Paltan, Baitul Mokkaram and stadium markets as on Sunday.

The Quran and the Hadith, incense perfumes, prayer beads and mats were not spared during the violence. A few thousand shops, including jewellery, electronics and furniture shops, were looted.