Hundreds of thousands of people had turned up at Ganajagaran Mancha in Dhaka’s Shahbagh to vent their anger after the war crimes tribunal did not hand down death sentence to Jamaat-e-Islami leader Abdul Quader Molla.
One and a half years later, the Mancha saw only around a thousand people protesting against the Supreme Court verdict that reduced death sentence for another Jamaat leader Delwar Hossain Sayedee to jail until death.
Even the protesters were spilt in three groups.
Leaders of all the three factions admitted that the rift in movement had weakened it, but they traded blames for the schism.
Mancha spokesperson Imran H Sarkar claims that the government played with the movement to weaken it while leaders of two other factions blamed Sarkar for the abyss.
Mancha exploded into existence with the sit-in protest of Blogger and Online Activists on Feb 5 last year when the ICT-1 awarded life term imprisonment to Molla. The protesters considered the punishment too lenient for the crimes he committed.
Sarkar, convener of Blogger and Online Activists, has been leading the movement since then.
Several pro-government student organisations raised different allegations against Sarkar after he accused the government of dillydallying over the trial of suspected war criminals early this year.
After a brawl between two factions several months later, Muktijoddha Chhatra Command leader Kamal Pasha Chwodhury started organising events using Ganajagaran Mancha’s name.
Later, Bangladesh Chhatra Moitri chief Bappaditya Basu began to call different programmes at the Mancha venue under the banner of ‘Shahbagh Movement’.
All the three groups were active after the Appellate Division verdict for Sayedee.
Sarkar has accused the government of creating the division ‘in a planned way’ as part of an understanding with the Jamaat, whose several leaders are standing trial for war crimes during Bangladesh’s Liberation War.
He told bdnews24.com: “After the government had planned a verdict of compromise, it started the process early this year to weaken Shahbagh (Ganajagaran Mancha).”
He admitted that the rift was dealing a big blow to the acceptability of Mancha.
Sarkar’s opponents dismiss his allegations that the government weakened the Mancha in a deal with the Jamaat.
Basu held Sarkar’s ‘autocratic and undemocratic’ attitude for the rift.
He told bdnews24.com: “Difference of opinions since before the last (parliamentary) election saw the seed for division in the Mancha.
“We tried to resolve the issues through discussion in internal forums. Many deserted the Mancha as Imran did not budge from his position.”
The division in the Mancha was first exposed on Apr 12 this year when several organisers ‘relieved’ Sarkar of the responsibility as its spokesperson.
At a press conference, they announced Kamal Pasha Chowdhury as the new spokesperson.
Chowdhury told bdnews24.com: “We said even in a press conference that we wanted change in the leadership. That’s why we relieved Imran H Sarkar of the responsibility as the spokesperson.
“He formed a separate platform by not accepting that. That’s why now there are divisions.”
He also admitted that the rift would erode people’s trust in the Mancha and the movement would be affected.