Jamaat men breach barricade at Arambagh, gather at Notre Dame College area

Breaching the police barricade, leaders and activists Jamaat-e-Islami have gathered on the street in the area between Arambagh intersection and Notre Dame College in the capital. Jamaat leaders and activists breached the police barricade at Arambagh intersection around 12:45pm today, Saturday.

After breaching the barricade, Jamaat leaders and activists who were already gathered at Arambagh area moved towards the Notre Dame College. Police didn’t block the Jamaat leaders and activists while they broke through the barricade. Rather, the police moved aside at one point.

Jammat had already given a announcement about holding a grand rally at Arambagh-Notre Dame College area today with various demands including the reinstatement of caretaker government system.

However, officials of the Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) had been saying for the last couple of days that Jamaat has not been given permission to hold a grand rally. So, the police won’t allow Jamaat to hold a grand rally in Dhaka.

Police’s Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime (CTTC) unit chief Md Asaduzzaman came to Arambagh around 10:00am today and said that police would take legal action if Jamaat tries holding the grand rally.

Keeping the Jamaat-announced programme ahead, Police had set up a barricade at Arambagh intersection this morning. Another barricade was placed on the road leading from Motijheel Shapla Chattar towards Notre Dame College. Because of the police barricade, traffic movement was suspended on the streets of Arambagh-Notre Dame College area.

According to the announcement, Jamaat leaders and activists started gathering at Arambagh intersection from the morning. The gathering of leaders and activists there started growing bigger with time.

At around 11:00am, a vast gathering of Jamaat leaders-activists was seen at Arambagh intersection, chanting slogans. However, the Jamaat leaders and activists couldn’t cross the Arambagh intersection then because of the police barricade placed there.

At around 11:30am, four mini-trucks carrying Jamaat leaders and activists arrived at Arambagh intersection. They were saying that they would hold the rally right there and the mini trucks would be the temporary stage of the rally.

Towards 12:00pm, the Jamaat leaders and activists on board the trucks were seen preparing a few mikes and they hung some of the amplifiers on the nearby trees and power poles. At one point, the gathering of Jammat-Shibir leaders and activists spread from Arambagh intersection to Kamlapur intersection.

Leaders and activists of Jammat-Shibir were seen gathering even in the alleys of different areas adjacent to Arambagh. Jamaat leaders and activists broke through the police barricade at Arambagh intersection around 12:45pm and then they gathered on the street stretched from Arambagh intersection to Notre Dame College.