Protesters stage a candlelight vigil blocking the Shahbagh intersection in the city on Friday, demanding the punishment of attackers on Hindus at Nasirnagar in Brahmanbaria.
Three-day ultimatum for resignation of fisheries minister issued
Several hundred protesters blocked Shahbagh crossing in Dhaka for about seven hours since noon protesting against attacks on Hindus at Nasirnagar in Brahmanbaria and demanding resignation of fisheries and livestock minister Muhammed Sayedul Hoque for his alleged abusive comments on the affected Hindus. Concluding the blockade, protesters’ spokesperson Manik Rakshit issued a three-day ultimatum to the minister to resign or they would block roads and highways at important places across the country on November 15. Different organisations including Jago Hindu Parishad, Bangladesh Matua Mahasangha, Shree Ma Anandamayee Ashram Parichalana Parishad, Bangladesh Hindu Buddhist Christian Oikya Parishad and Dhaka University general students joined the protest. The protestors also burned an effigy of the fisheries and livestock minister. Members of law enforcing agencies took position around the protesters. Prior to the blockade, the demonstrators brought out procession at Dhaka University and marched to Shahbagh via Doyel Chattar, National Press Club and Matshya Bhaban. The protesters also demanded giving proper compensation for the affected Hindus and their temples, identifying the instigators, masterminds and perpetrators of the attacks, bringing them to justice, finding out six missing families who reportedly left the area in fear and rehabilitating them and setting up separate ministry and an independent commission to oversee issues of religious and ethnic minorities. They also urged the government to find out the Hindus who were forced to leave the country in the past 16 years, bring them back to the country and rehabilitating them on their ancestral lands. The protesters carrying banners, festoons and plaques reading their slogans and demands joined the blockade. Hundreds of cars, buses and other motorised vehicles at four ends of the crossing became stranded during the blockade. Passengers were seen getting down from the buses and auto rickshaws stuck. The law enforcers asked the vehicles to go back. Immediately after the beginning of the blockade, traffic police were seen to divert the vehicles from Matshya Bhaban, Hotel Ruposhi Bangla and Bata crossings and Dhaka University’s TSC square asking the vehicles to use alternative roads. During the blockade, the protesters chanted slogans against the fisheries minister and attacks on Hindus at Nasirnagar and elsewhere in the country. The protesters drew the map of Bangladesh in the crossing, filled it with flowers and lit candles in the evening, symbolising that the enlightened society of religious harmony would be upheld. The protesters ended the blockade through a procession carrying lighting candles from Shahbagh that ended at TSC. In the morning, Bangladesh Jatiya Hindu Mahajote formed a human chain in front of the National Press Club in the city to press home the same demands. On October 30, an unruly mob went berserk and vandalised and robbed about 200 houses and business establishments and 22 temples of Hindus at Nasirnagar upazila following a reported post on Facebook a doctored photo of the Kaaba.
– See more at: http://www.newagebd.net/article/2576/protesters-block-road-for-seven-hours#sthash.QqaA83zx.dpuf
Source: New Age
