‘Mob’ to be dealt with sternly from now on: Advisor Mahfuj Alam

Interim government’s Advisor Mahfuj Alam has called for stopping the practice of “mob” or chaos.

“Please stop mobs if you are in favour of mass uprising; but if you don’t stop this mob, you will also be treated as devil,” he wrote in a Facebook post on Monday.

Stating that this was the last request, he said, “No more requests will be made after today’s incident. Taking laws into your own hands is not your task.”

Houses of Awami League leaders, including the Dhanmondi 32, and various other establishments, including murals of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, were demolished and set on fire, and homes of the members of Sheikh family also were torn down in various areas, centring publishing a speech of fallen autocrat Sheikh Hasina, who is currently staying in India, on the Facebook page of banned student organisation, Bangladesh Chhatra League from 5 February.

Amid this situation, students were attacked in Gazipur.

As the situation continued for three days, neither the government nor the law enforcement agencies could not take any action, which raised questions among people from all walks of life.

In this context, the government initiated a special drive, Operation Devil Hunt, from Saturday.

Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir and two other senior party leaders on Monday met Chief Advisor Muhammad Yunus and expressed their concerns about the certain incidents that took place in the country recently.

In his Facebook post, Advisor Mahfuj Alam further writes, “From now on we shall deal with sternly so-called movements and the mob. There will be no respite if anyone tries to prove the state dysfunctional and failure.”

He also urged the religious people not to destroy the scope they have got after 15 years to observe their culture and religion peacefully due to “stupidity” or “extremism”.

Mahfuj also urged them to stop oppression, otherwise facing oppression would be inevitable for them. “This is the last request to you,” he warned.