Dhaka: At least 14 people have been killed and scores injured in Bangladesh as Islamists, demanding a tougher blasphemy law, fought pitched battles with the police on Monday in the capital, prompting a ban on public rallies.
The newly-floated Hefazat-e-Islam or “Protectorate of Islam” enforced their “Dhaka siege” programme yesterday to mount pressure on the secular Awami League-led government to implement their 13-point demand, including the enactment of a blasphemy law to punish those who insult Islam and the Prophet.
Bangladesh’s police and paramilitary troops overnight dispersed a huge demonstration by thousands of Islamists in the capital. Police confirmed that three of their men and a soldier of paramilitary Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) were killed in the clashes last night and early today. The situation prompted the Dhaka Metropolitan Police to enforce a ban on public rallies in the city fearing that violence could spread further. Doctors at the major state-run Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH) said 14 bodies were kept at their morgue but unconfirmed reports quoted the toll to be as high as 22, saying several of them were taken to private facilities. A police spokesman said they were trying to gather information about the toll. The police said the three law enforcers were killed and over 50 people injured when the Hefazat activists launched an attack mobilising students of unregistered madarsas at the Kanchpur area. The activists spread rumours that the paramilitary and police forces killed several of their comrades overnight. The attack came after the BGB and police raided a madarasa at Sanarpara in Siddhirganj after morning prayers suspecting that the radical activists prepared to lay a siege on the Dhaka-Chittagong highway. The police’s ban on public meetings came just ahead of the ruling Awami League and main opposition BNP’s simultaneous rallies in the capital.
Hefazat-e-Islam enforced their “Dhaka siege” programme blocking the entry points of the city and staged a grand rally at Shapla Chattar area of Motijheel which they wanted to linger for indefinite period defying a government warning on Sunday. But the combined action of the BGB, riot police and elite anti-crime Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) evicted the radical activists using sound grenades, tear gas canisters, blank gunshots and police’s armoured personnel carriers (APCs). (PTI)
