Bangladesh Police and Jamaat-e-Islami Activists Clash, Killing One

 Suryatapa Mukherjee,

Correspondent (Asia: South)

 

DHAKA – On Wednesday, August 14, an altercation between Bangladeshi police and opposition activists left one man dead and about 20 injured. It was the second day of a nationwide general strike in which police used night sticks and tear gas to disperse dozens of protesters who tried to block a highway in Meherpur district, 176 kilometres (110 miles) west of Dhaka.

According to sources, the victim was a leader of the student front Islami Chattra Shibir, Khalilur Rahman, 22, who was shot dead in the clash by the police. However, the police states that the body is yet to be identified and maintains that the man died after being hit by a car as he was chased by security forces during the clash.

“We are no way responsible for this. They attacked police, blew bombs targeting us, so we had to fire rubber bullets in self-defence,” said Rafiqul Islam, police chief in Jatrabari in Dhaka where the protests took place. “He is unlucky that he lost balance when fleeing and hit a roadside vehicle.”

On Tuesday, August 13, opposition activists exploded crude bombs, blocked roads and burned vehicles to enforce a 48-hour nationwide general strike. Around 12 vehicles were damaged, 38 crude bombs blasted and 40 people were injured across the country.

Another 30 people were injured on the second day as homemade bombs went off in Dhaka and elsewhere in the country, with sources saying that Jamaat-Shibir men torched and vandalised five vehicles across the country. Witnesses also said that around 10 crude bombs exploded in different parts of the capital, including Sayedabad Janapad, Jatrabari, Palatan, Bijoynagar and Adabor.

The strike was called by Jamaat-e-Islami – Bangladesh’s largest Islamic party – to denounce a High Court decision of August 1 which ruled the party’s election registration as invalid since its regulations violate the constitutional provision of secularism by stating it wants to impose Shariah, or Islamic law. The party could be barred from taking part in the next elections.

The ruling against Jamaat came amid calls to ban the party for its role in the 1971 war of independence, during which it opposed Bangladesh’s breakaway from Pakistan.

Five party leaders have been sentenced to either death or life imprisonment for crimes against humanity linked to the independence war. Other party leaders , including party chief Matiur Rahman Nizami, are still on trial on charges of war crimes including mass murder, rape and religious persecution.

The court ruling against the party came after a case was filed in 2009 seeking to scrap Jamaat’s registration; days after a secular government took over.

Jamaat-e-Islami acting secretary general Rafiqul Islam Khan had said the shutdown would remain in force until 6am on August 15 and had urged the country’s people to observe it.

(with inputs from agencies)

Image Courtesy: Wikimedia Commons