An unnerving silence penetrates the dark night at Purana Paltan intersection; the acrid smell of burnt odds and ends drifts in the air and bears the hallmark of violence.
It was 2am, the early hours of May 06; as I got off the rickshaw a chill went down my spine - it was very much the calm before the storm.
I spotted about 200 members of Border Guards of Bangladesh (BGB) next to the rear wall of the secretariat, nearly a hundred policemen in the middle of the intersection and the dark silhouettes of a platoon of Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) members; all in riot gear.
Rumours suggested that law enforcers were about to move towards Shapla Chattar at Motijheel to disperse the activists of the Hefazat-e-Islam.
The Motijheel Shapla Chattar was about a kilometer away from the place. Hundreds of Journalist from different print and electronic media agencies crowded there to cover the news.
Law enforcers were reportedly advancing towards Motijheel from all directions – from Dainik Bangla, Arambagh and Purana Paltan.
Only the road leading to Kamalapur from Motjheel was left unguarded as police kept it open for the Hefazat activists to use as an escape route.
Hefazat-e-Islam vowed not to leave Motijheel until its 13-point demand were met, after it laid siege to Dhaka from the early morning of May 5.
The government effort for a negotiation failed; the Hefazat men vowed not to move even an inch; the time was ticking away; it was 2:30am; distant sounds of fired tear gas canisters and sound grenades were heard continually.
The law enforcers were inching forward in intervals of five or six minutes.
Now it was 3am. A walkie-talkie call came to a plainclothes police officer. I overheard: “The troops on the frontline have crossed the Dainik Bangla crossing; Hefazat men are taking to their heels.”
I hurry forward with my colleagues – Manik Miazee and Amirul Rajib. I came across huge piles of brick and concrete chips, shards of glasses and ashes of burnt books littering the streets on either side of the avenue.
The steel fences of the road island were pulled out and dragged to the centre of the street to use as a blockade by the Islamist protesters.
Scores of damaged and burnt vehicles lay scattered on the roads; the roadside makeshift shops of books and old clothing were still smoldering.
The entire road stretching from Paltan Crossing to Motijheel was dotted with holes dug by Hefazat activists to extract brick chips and fight the police.
I felt like I was walking through a war-ravaged town. Almost all the shops along the road from Paltan crossing to Dainik Bangla were ablaze.
We were walking with great care so as not to be injured by the shards of glasses from buildings and damaged cars.
On our way we noticed over 200 Hefazat men, guessing by their turbans and white robes, sitting on the stairs of the country’s National Mosque, the Baitul Mukarram.
The police saw them but went past without saying anything.
It was now 3.30am; we heard the members of law enforcement agencies on the front line had reached Shapla Chattar, the heart of Motijheel, where they met fierce resistance from the Islamist group.
We crossed the Danik Bangla crossing, just 500-meter away from Motijheel and came to a halt for a while in front of the Motihjeel Police Station, where an ARV police vehicle was parked.
An ambulance appeared out of nowhere and zoomed past us towards the police station.
We moved another 100 meters towards Motijheel where police were fighting pitched battle with Hefazat men.
We saw a wounded journalist of ATN News shuffling down the road with the help of two media colleagues. The police at the Shapla Chattar beat him, they told us.
Just a few seconds later, more than 10 injured Hefazat activists were rescued by media personnel. As a police pick-up van came from the direction of Hotel Purbani and pulled off near us, we requested them to take the injured to the Dhaka Medical Hospital and they did so.
About forty or fifty petrified Hefazat activists suddenly came out of a lane adjacent to Mohammedan Sporting Club only to face the law enforcers who told them to flee the spot, pointing to the way through the National Stadium and Jibon Bima Bhaban.
About 50 meters from where we were standing, we saw a number of injured people being helped to flee the scene by the media and law enforcement officers.
It was 3:45am; a small pocket of resistance was put up by Hefazat activists at central Motijheel prompting police to fire sound grenades and rubber bullets to break the up the group.
At this point, we left the place and returned to Purana Paltan crossing in groups, as we were in a slight of trance and somewhat terrified.
Out of the blue a cluster of white-robed men were frantically running to escape the wrath of the police but ironically they came face to face with more law enforcers.
To my utter surprise, police showed them the way out of the trouble-torn area.
It was 4am when the law enforcers finally wrapped up their operation; we were standing at the Purana Paltan crossing where I started, baffled and dazed.
As I headed home at 5am drained and exhausted, I met scores of Hefazat activists from Kakrail to Badda returning home on foot, after a lost battle.
