Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami on Wednesday announced two days of programs over the deaths of the party’s late leader and convicted war criminal Delwar Hossain Sayedee in a hospital in Dhaka, and a party activist during clashes in Cox’s Bazar.
Prof Mujibur Rahman, acting ameer (chief) of the party, at a press conference in an undisclosed location said that the party will stage demonstrations and protest marches across the country on August 18 and 23.
The programs are also meant to protest the clashes over Sayedee’s death and “gayebana janaza” (absentee funeral prayers) in Dhaka, Chittagong, Cox’s Bazar, Sylhet, Rajshahi, Khulna and Jamalpur among other districts.
He claimed that police arrested some 200 members of the party during the clashes.
Sayedee, 83, passed away on Monday night while undergoing treatment at Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University (BSMMU) after several cardiac arrests. He was buried on Tuesday afternoon in Pirojpur.
He had been sentenced to life imprisonment for committing crimes against humanity during the 1971 Liberation War.
Following the Jamaat leader’s death, his party colleagues engaged in a brawl with police over his funeral prayers in Cox’s Bazar’s Chakaria Upazila on Tuesday afternoon.
Similar clashes were also reported in Pekua Upazila of the district.
Cases in Dhaka, Chittagong, Cox’s Bazar
A case was filed against 5,000 leaders and activists of the Jamaat and its student wing Islami Chhatra Shibir in connection with the vandalism in Shahbagh in the early hours of Tuesday.
Sub-Inspector Md Jabbar of Shahbagh Police Station filed the case on Tuesday night.
The police station’s officer-in-charge Noor Mohammad said four people were named in the case but he did not disclose their names.
Earlier on Tuesday, a clash took place at the Baitul Mukarram National Mosque in Dhaka when followers of Sayedee attempted to hold an absentee funeral prayer amid National Mourning Day prayers there.
In Chittagong, the police sued 400 individuals in three cases over Tuesday’s clashes between Sayedee’s followers and law enforcement officials.
The cases were filed at Kotwali and Khulshi police stations.
In Cox’s Bazar, the police on Wednesday filed five cases against 9,400 Jamaat-Shibir men over Tuesday’s brawls in Chakaria, Pekua and Sadar upazilas.
Meanwhile, the widow of the Jamaat leader killed in Chakaria filed a murder case against 2,500 unidentified suspects on Wednesday.
No arrests were made in connection with any of the cases as of 10pm, according to Superintendent of Police Mahfuzul Islam.