Leaders of anti-razakar movement Ganajagaran Mancha Tuesday submitted a memorandum to Home Minister MK Alamgir accusing the law enforcers of reluctance in arresting the Jamaat-Shibir activists who were behind the attacks on bloggers since February.
The minister dismissed the allegation of police’s indifference in this regard, but agreed that the Jamaat-Shibir men perpetrated the attacks.
The Mancha claims that the gangs of extremists and militants led by Jamaat and Shibir killed bloggers Ahmed Rajeeb Haider Shovon, Arif Raihan Deep and Jagat Jyoti Talukdar till April for their anti-Jamaat stance.
Bloggers Himel, Nirmal Pal and Tanmoy Ahmed Moon were attacked. Finally, the Mancha’s active participant Arif Nur of Udichi was critically injured in attacks on September 7.
Imran H Sarkar, spokesperson of the Mancha and a physician by profession, demanded immediate arrest of the killers and attackers, and security of the leaders and activists of the movement, which is led by youths and supported by people of all walks of life.
The attackers have killed three bloggers and injured several others across the country after youths in hundreds converged in Shahbagh in February demanding capital punishment for all war criminals, banning Jamaat-Shibir and with a call to boycott the anti-liberation forces. In solidarity, people across the country and elsewhere in the world staged demonstrations too.
Days after the movement began on February 5, Jamaat supporters and its allied parties and organisations resorted to spreading propaganda against the Shahbagh supporters and demanding their death sentence terming them “atheists.” Then the Islamists under the banner of radical group Hefazat-e-Islam joined hands with the Jamaat against the Shahbagh leadership, many of who are bloggers, in Dhaka and elsewhere claiming that they were working against Islam. On February 22, they attacked the makeshift stages in many parts of the country, and later organised long-march and Dhaka blockade programmes.
After receiving the memo, MK Alamgir also claimed that Jamaat and Shibir activists had been involved with these attacks to save their leaders. “Actions have already been taken against the attackers. The government is very much heartfelt in this regard.”
Later Imran told reporters that despite the home minister’s assurance of security, the attacks had been continued. The police could arrest only five suspected killers of Rajeeb. The rest of the killers were moving scot free.
“The police are very much reluctant regarding the arrests. It helps recurrence of such attacks in the future.”
Earlier, the Mancha activists held a rally at Shahbagh Projonmo Chattar and a six-member delegation went to the home ministry to submit the memo.
