Home Minister Mohiuddin Khan Alamgir
Home Minister Mohiuddin Khan Alamgir on Wednesday said the government has information that opposition BNP was involved with the recent countrywide violence and attacks on police by Jamaat-Shibir activists.
“The state will resist such anarchic movement by Jamaat-Shibir activists with utmost strength,” the minister told newsmen emerging from a meeting of the cabinet committee on law and order at the home ministry in the afternoon.
He claimed that the opposition BNP is instigating such violence instead of condemning it.
Such pre-planned violence and attacks have been taking place day after day to foil the ongoing war criminals trial, the minister said.
Mohiuddin informed that the law enforcers have so far arrested around 2,000 persons following the recent violence across the country.
Asked whether police are acting in self-defence only or trying to resist the Jamaat-Shibir men, the minister said as part of democratic attitude, it the first duty of police to defend him or herself.
The home minister Mohiuddin Khan Alamgir presided over the meeting where senior officials of different ministries, police, Rapid Action Battalion and intelligence were present.
The leaders and activists of Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami and its student wing Islami Chhatra Shibir went on rampage and assaulted police personnel across the country including the capital for the last few days.
On November 4, the Jamaat announced a nine-day agitation programme beginning from November 5 to press home its demand for the immediate release of the party’s top leaders, including those facing war crimes trial.
Till Monday, more than 200 policemen, at least 300 people and three journalists were injured during clashes between the police and Jamaat-Shibir men across the country.
They ended their protest programme on Tuesday through a pre-planned attack on the law enforcers in an unprecedented manner, leaving about 20 policemen injured in Dhaka, Khulna and Cox’s Bazar.
Source: The Daily Star