The role of Jatiya Party (JaPa) chief HM Ershad centring the May 5 rally of Hefazat-e-Islam last year was one of an opportunist, who wanted to remain by the side that emerged on top.
Ershad, who leads a party that belonged to the ruling alliance, reportedly kept liaison with both Hefazat and the government side.
On May 3 last year, the former autocrat ordered his men to join the Dhaka siege programme and help the Hefazat troop by supplying water and dry food on the streets.
The next day, his Press Secretary Sunil Shuvo Roy issued a statement in which Ershad called upon the government to accept Hefazat’s demands.
The statement read: “The demands placed by Hefazat are legal and I call upon the government to accept them with a spirit of sacrifice for Islam.”
Hefazat’s 13-point demand included revoking the women education policy, banning free mixing of men and women and demolishing all the sculptures including those built to pay tribute to the Liberation War.
On May 5, JaPa’s the then secretary general ABM Ruhul Amin Howlader, Kazi Zafar Ahmed, who is not with Ershad anymore, and Joint Secretary Iqbal Hossain Raju, along with some other activists, took part in Hefazat’s rally.
Upon his orders, mineral water and dry food were distributed among Hefazat men at 10am in the capital’s Abdullahpur area – one of the six entrances to Dhaka.
At the same time, Ershad instructed senior leaders Anisul Islam Mahmud and Zia Uddin Ahmmed Bablu – now secretary general of the party – to keep in touch with the government.
“If Hefazat succeeded in toppling the government from power, then Ershad’s intention was to be a part of the new government,” said Kazi Zafar Ahmed, then a presidium member of JaPa and now the leader of a faction.
On the other hand, Bablu, the current secretary general of the party, told the Dhaka Tribune: “Why would we participate in Hefazat’s programme? We were allied with the ruling party.”
However, after Hefazat backtracked in the face of a crackdown, Ershad changed his voice, show-causing Iqbal Hossain Raju for taking part in the rally and the Dhaka siege programme.
A few days later, Ershad, known for changing decision in matters of minutes, said he supported the Muslims but not Hefazat’s 13-point demands.
Recently, State Minister for LGRD Mashiur Rahman Ranga, also a leader of Ershad’s JaPa, told the Dhaka Tribune that the party chief had exiled those who had participated in the Hefazat programme.
Talking to the Dhaka Tribune, Iqbal Hossain Razu claimed that Ershad had given him instructions to take part in the May 5 rally.
Ershad was made a special envoy to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina after Awami League assumed state power after the 10th national election.