Police foil Mancha march

Two Mancha activists were injured during the ensuing scuffle with the police on Monday.

The Mancha activists would take out a procession to protest the government’s role over the trial of Jamaat-e-Islami and police action on them.

They would also hold protest rallies on Friday across the country.

Police stopped a procession taken out by the Mancha activists in the Doyel intersection around 12:15pm.

As they tried to push their way through, police beat them up, said Baki Billah, one of the Mancha organisers and former president of Chhatra Union.

Freedom fighter Abul Kalam Azad and Chhatra Union central committee organising secretary GM Zilani Shubho were injured in the police action.

However, Senior Assistant Commissioner Shibli Noman of Dhaka Metropolitan Police Ramna zone refuted the allegation of police action.

Police tried to remove several Mancha activists for breaking barricade that might have led to a misunderstanding, he said.

“There was no baton-charge on them,” Noman said.

“We asked them to observe their protest in Doyel intersection but could allow them into the Secretariat because it involves the security of the Prime Minister,” the police official said when asked about stopping the march.

Law Minister Anisul Haque on May 29 said Jamaat cannot be tried under the current legal framework.

The following day Mancha activists took out processions in protest against the minster’s statement in Dhaka and Chittagong.

Mancha activists set a deadline — June 2 — and said if the minister did not withdraw his remarks by that date, they would observe a sit-in protest in front of the Law Ministry.

Baki Billah said the Mancha activists thronged the Shahbagh intersection around 11.30 as planned.

“We headed for the Law Ministry around 12pm. Police stopped us in Doyel intersection by putting up a barricade,” he said.

Billah said police baton-charged them when they tried to push their way through.

He said they would be at the Doyel intersection until 2pm.