Police swoop down on anti-sculpture protesters
A group of religious zealots took out a protest rally from the national mosque Baitul Mukarram, despite police obstacles. They brought out the procession on Friday, after the Jumma prayer. They chanted slogans against erecting sculptures.
The police later swopped down on the procession and used batons and boots to disperse the protesters. No one has been detained in the incident, said police.
A group of the religious elements emerged from the northern gate of Baitul Mukarram masjid after Jumma prayers and another group took position on the mosque stairs. When a member of the police’s Special Branch asked them to leave the place, they began chanting ‘naraae taqbir’. After chanting the slogan for five minutes, a group took to the streets from the northern gates, after which the police swooped down on them.
Later the protestors within the mosque continued chanting anti-sculpture and anti-atheist slogans for 10 more minutes.
At around 2:15pm the religious elements left the mosque, broke through the police barricade to the north of the mosque and marched towards Paltan. When the procession reached the Paltan intersection, the police rushed forward and dispersed them.
There was no banner of any organisation used in the demonstration, though one of the demonstrators had a placard mentioning the names of Islamist leaders Faizul Karim and Mamunul Huq.
A madrasa student from Bashabo taking part in the demonstration, told Prothom Alo he was there to join the protest. The programme was taken up in protest against sculptures all around the country.
ADC of the police’s Motijheel zone, Enamul Haque, told newspersons that there was a ban on holding any such programmes without prior permission. Despite that, a group emerged from the mosque after Jumma namaaz to bring out a procession. They headed towards Shahbagh, but the police halted them at the Paltan intersection.
Earlier, strict security measures had been taken around Baitul Mukarram mosque to prevent any untoward incident.
Before the Jumma prayer, Motijheel zone senior assistant police commissioner Zahidul Islam told Prothom Alo that an anti-sculpture group had tried to spark off violence after the Jumma prayer last Friday. They had said they would not take up any programme without permission this Friday. But they couldn’t be trusted and so additional law enforcement had been deployed.
The police official went on to say that there were at least 400 of 500 members of the law enforcement deployed in the area around Baitul Mukarram.
The police were still in position at 2:40pm when this report was being filed. The demonstrators had left the Baitul Mukarram area.