The 24-hour shutdown called by 25 socio-cultural organisations to thwart the Hifazat-e Islam long march kicked off in the capital Dhaka with torch processions.
The blockade of road, rail and water transports also started nationwide at the call of Shahbagh’s Ganajagaran Mancha.
Several hundred people took out a procession at around 5pm from Dhaka University’s TSC under the banner of the Sammilita Sangskritik Jote and Ekattorer Ghatak Dalal Nirmul Committee. They gathered in front of the National Press Club and blocked the street there.
Similar processions were also taken out from Shahbagh, the epicentre of an unprecedented mass uprising demanding maximum penalty for convicted war criminals and a ban on the Jamaat-e-Islami.
Bangladesh Workers’ Party and Jatiya Ganatantrik League supporters also joined the demonstrators in front of the Press Club.
Little-known Hifazat had announced a long march from Chittagong to Dhaka and hold a rally there on Saturday. They have alleged bloggers, leading the Shahbagh campaign, are ‘atheists’ and demanded their punishment.
The organisation is said to be backed by the Jamaat-e-Islami, two of whose leaders have been convicted of war crimes perpetrated during the 1971 Liberation War.
Pro-liberation Sector Commanders’ Forum, Ghatak Dalal Nirmul Committee, Sammilita Sangskritik Jote and 23 other socio-cultural organisations had called for a 24-hour shutdown from 6pm to thwart the long march.
Leftist parties later lent their support to the call.
Source: Bd news24
