Amid reports that no political party will be allowed to hold public meetings and processions in the next one month, the Ganajagaran Mancha has suspended its Monday’s rally in Mymensingh.
“The move has been made as per the ban on gatherings and procession by the Home Ministry,” Bangladesh Chhatra Moitree President Bappaditya Basu, also one of the organisers of the movement, told bdnews24.com on Sunday night.
The Mancha has been demanding capital punishment for the war criminals and a ban on Jamaat-e-Islami as it opposed Bangladesh’s birth since Feb 5.
The government, however, has dismissed reports that there is a ban on rallies by political party for the time being.
Basu said the Mancha’s other exchange of opinion programmes will held outside the capital in the secluded time to create awareness among people about their demands.
“Those who allow intrusion of miscreants in their rally after taking permission to hold it peacefully, repress the people, vandalise vehicles and set fire to shops in the name of rally will not be allowed to hold rally in the next one month,” Home Minister Muhiuddin Khan Alamgir said.
He was inaugurating the newly set up Jorarganj Police Station in Mirsarai Upazila in Chittagong.
Speaking in a separate programme, Syed Ashraful Islam, the General Secretary of the ruling Awami League, said the government had imposed a ban for one month on all forms of political meeting and procession across the country for smooth operation of post-Mahasen relief and rehabilitation activities.
“Cooperation of all is essential during the natural disasters. Though the causalities in Mahasen are not high, a normal situation is needed in the affected areas to conduct relief activities.
“So, a decision has been made to ban all kinds of political meetings and processions for a month.”
“It’ll be applicable not only for the opposition, but also for the ruling party and others,” the LGRDand Cooperatives added.
Hours after the Home Minister’s remark, the ministry issued a statement to clarify government’s stance on the issue.
“This is not a ban, rather a precaution to protect public safety,” the statement said adding there was “no scope to spread confusion over the matter”.
According to the ministry, what the minister said was that in the aftermath of the cyclone Mahasen, the government will not allow any programme by any political party that may threaten to endanger public life and property, or lead to acts of sabotage.
The government has had no objection to ‘ordinary’ rallies, it added
Basu said the organisers of the Shahbagh protests will meet the local representatives of the Mancha as per previous plans.
Imran H Sarker, the platform’s spokesperson, on May 3 announced that they would hold rallies in Gazipur on May 10 and in Mymensingh on May 18. They will stage a public meeting at Dhaka’s Prajanma Chattar, the site of the unprecedented mass uprising at Shahbagh, on the last day of this month.
Hundreds of people came down on the capital’s streets on Feb 5 after a tribunal, dealing with war crimes perpetrated during the 1971 Liberation War, sentenced Jamaat-e-Islami leader Abdul Quader Molla to life in prison. Many felt the sentence was ‘too lenient’ for the ‘Butcher of Mirpur’ – as Molla was known during the War.
Eventually, the movement spread across Bangladesh and hundreds of thousands of people joined the movement. Replicas of Shahbagh’s Ganajagaran Mancha were erected nationwide.
Although police dismantled the Mancha at Shahbagh on May 6, the movement continues.
Source: Bd news24