‘Stop Shahbagh demo’

Hefazat-e-Islam Bangladesh, a key ally of Jamaat-e-Islami, on Monday gave the government three days to stop the Shahbagh demonstrations, or else, face anarchy.

It also threatened to besiege the Bangabhaban.

The ultimatum came from a rally held at Parbati High School ground in Hathazari upazila in Chittagong district in the afternoon.

General Secretary Junaid Babunagari said: “The government has to stop the Shahbagh movement by Feb 28. Otherwise, there will be anarchy in the country.”

He said they would not leave the streets until the demands were met and go for ‘Jihad ‘and besiege the Bangabhaban.

Young Bangladeshis from their demonstrations at Shahbagh intersection raised the demand for execution of all convicted war criminals and a ban on politics of Jamaat and its student front Chhatra Shibir for opposing independence in 1971 and harbouring ‘war criminals’.

Hefazat-e-Islam and several other small parties announced protest programmes on Friday claiming that the Shahbagh movement was against Islam and demanding punishment to the ‘atheist bloggers’ and organisers of the Shahbagh protest.

But the organisers of the ‘Ganajagaran Mancha’ at Shahbagh have been saying that their protests are not against the religion and that those who have been using religion for business are running propaganda against the agitations as they fear “possible extinction”.

Hefazat-e-Islam leader Babunagari said: “Our movement has no connections with the Jamaat. We also want the war crimes trials. But trial of blasphemy is far more important than trial of war criminals.”

Hefazat-e-Islam leaders from their rally termed Home Minister MK Alamgir a ‘war criminal and Razakar’ and demanded his resignation.

“We don’t want to take law in hand. But we’ll be compelled to take law in hand if a fair trial isn’t held against the atheists.”