Youth-led platform, Gonojagoron Moncho, yesterday protested against al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri’s audio message, and brought out a candlelit procession at Shahbagh Projonmo Chattar.
The procession started around 6:45pm, then marched through different city streets, including TSC Chattar and the Katabon intersection, before ending at the Projonmo Chattar.
Terming Jamaat-Hefazat as an ally of al-Qaeda and the Taliban, Gonojagoron Moncho Convener Imran H Sarkar said: “Jamaat-Shibir and Hefazat have been working as an ally of such typesw of international criminal organisations from the beginning of their foundation, so Zawahiri’s speech is not surprising to us.
“Jamaat-Hefazat’s activities were not political, and it was working only to establish Taliban and al-Qaeda activities in Bangladesh.”
Imran urged the government to ban Jamaat-Hefazat from all types of political activities in Bangladesh, and called on all the Gonojagoron activists to protest against these militant and terrorist forces.
Bappaditya Basu, president of Bangladesh Chhatra Moitree, told the Dhaka Tribune: “Zawahiri’s speech proved the Jamaat-e-Islami to be international criminals.”
Blogger Badhon said: “We have been suspecting that Jamaat-Shibir had links with several international criminal organisations. It is now true that they are a part of such type of organisations that had been committing heinous activities across the world.”