Police fire stun grenades in clashes with cow-slaughtering crowd outside Prothom Alo office

A group of protesters who gathered there for a ‘cow slaughtering’ event clash with police

The protesters, who gathered outside the Prothom Alo office in Dhaka’s Karwan Bazar to hold a ‘feast’ after a ‘cow-slaughtering’ event, have engaged in a series of clashes with police.

The law enforcers fired several rounds of sound grenades to disperse the protesters on Sunday.

Army personnel were deployed to calm the situation following the skirmishes.

A group of netizens have been campaigning on social media for the past few days calling the Prothom Alo a 'pro-India' newspaper. They called for a feast programme titled ‘ziyaafat’ outside the newspaper's office in Karwan Bazar.

Police tried to intervene when the protesters assembled there to hold the protest event in the afternoon. At one point, the protesters clashed with police and it turned into skirmishes in the evening.

A Daily Ittefaq journalist said the protesters came to the office of the Prothom Alo in Karwan Bazar with two cows on Sunday afternoon. They were obstructed by police at that moment.

Later, they slaughtered the cows after leaving the Prothom Alo office at the capital’s Pragati Insurance Bhaban. Several attempts by police to stop them went in vain.

The journalist said the sound of a stun grenade was heard from the scene in the evening.

At 7pm, Tejgaon Police Station chief Mobarak Hossain said: "They [protesters] have been carrying out this programme for a few days. They are not leaving today even after being asked to do so. They are not moving even after the usage of a few rounds of grenades.”

Tejgaon police Sub-Inspector Akram Hossain said, "An operation of joint forces is currently under way in the Karwan Bazar. We are part of that drive."

Media workers and the staff associated with the Prothom Alo have declined to comment on the matter. Their spokesperson’s statement was also unavailable.

For the last few days, a group of people have been arranging such programmes to prevent what they called was "Indian aggression".

A section of them also offered Juma prayers outside the Daily Star office in Dhaka on Friday.