Jamaat-e-Islami and its student wing Islami Chhatra Shibir Friday staged showdown as much as possible at the BNP-led 18-party alliance’s rally at Suhrawardy Udyan, a historic place related to Liberation war, held on Friday.
Jamaat actively collaborated with the Pakistani occupation army in killing three million people and violating over 250,000 women during the nine-month-long 1971 Liberation War.
The Pakistan army surrendered on December 16, 1971 at the ground, where the Jamaat-Shibir men Friday gathered with big banners, festoons and portraits of the convicted and accused war criminals demanding their release.
Though the rally was set to begin at 2pm, the Jamaat-Shibir men started to arrive at the venue from 9am in small groups with an aim to grasp the key places around the stage from where the top alliance leaders including BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia delivered her speech.
Apparently, the venue initially took a look as if it was not the 18-party alliance rally rather only of the Jamaat.
The Jamaat-Shibir activists hung huge banners in and around the rally field containing pictures of their leaders facing war crimes charges. They also set two huge balloons adorned with images of the Jamaat leaders, but these were later removed upon the directive of BNP leaders.
Suhrawardy Udyan (ground) is also a historic place as Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman gave the historic speech on March 7, 1971, where he announced to get prepare for the struggle of independence. On March 26, 1992, “mother of martyred freedom fighters” Jahanara Imam held a mass rally at this place where former Jamaat ameer Ghulam Azam was given a death sentence at a mock mass trial. Azam was sentenced to 90 years in jail by the war crimes tribunal on September 16.
Without mentioning any name, Khaleda in her speech said she would release all the “political prisoners” if her party assumed power. She also criticised the arrest and alleged torture of Shibir President Delwar Hossain which drew much applause from the Jamaat-Shibir men at the venue.
The Jamaat-Shibir activists gradually occupied the front rows of the audience since the morning and around 1:30pm they locked in a clash with the activists of Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal, students’ wing of the BNP, regarding sitting arrangement.
The senior BNP and Jamaat leaders had to get involved to bring the situation under control. Later, the activists of Chhatra Dal and Jubo Dal, the youth wing of the BNP, took up a position on the other side of the stage.
The Shibir men started thronging the venue since early morning chanting slogans “Shibir Police Bhai Bhai…” (Shibir and police are brothers).
It was also seen that they chanted slogans demanding the release of their detained leaders and scrapping of the “controversial” International Crimes Tribunal which awarded capital punishment to the senior leaders of the party.
Due to the huge number of banners and festoons of the Jamaat leaders, the whole area turned into a stronghold of Jamaat and while any Jamaat leader was addressing they cheered up and clapped passionately.
In his speech, acting ameer of Jamaat Moqbul Ahmed said: “Foreigners urged the government to maintain international standards at the tribunal, but they did not follow the suggestions.”
Terming the ruling Awami League a “communal political party,” he alleged that they had withdrawn all the cases against them, but not any case against the opposition leaders.
Another Jamaat leader, Izzat Ullah, demanded the release of the Shibir president, claiming that he had been tortured in custody.
While addressing the rally, Shibir leaders also criticised the International Crimes Tribunal.
