The death of four people, including a nine-year-old girl, in violence committed by Jamaat and Shibir activists during Tuesday’s hartal is further evidence, if any more were needed, of the depths to which the party and its supporters can sink.
It’s all the more upsetting considering that the hartal was called because of presumptions that Ghulam Azam is innocent and therefore not deserving of punishment.
Jamaat-e-Islami’s position on the ICT verdict is highly questionable, but there can be no question that the people killed in the panicked frenzy created by rampaging party activists were entirely innocent and not deserving of any sort of punishment at all, let alone the loss of their lives.
This string of Jamaat-e-Islami hartals during the spiritually significant month of Ramadan, all of which have resulted in violence and vandalism, are extremely contradictory moves by members of an organisation committed, ostensibly at least, to the principles of Islam.
To cause injury and harm during a month that has been set aside for self-restraint and introspection is very far from those principles indeed, but terrorising commuters and office-goers during any month of the year cannot be tolerated in a civilised society, especially when it results in something as unforgivable as the death of a child.
Jamaat-e-Islami’s eagerness to continue threatening ordinary citizens and cause turbulence during Ramadan speaks volumes about their integrity, and challenges their claims to be the party that addresses the nation’s spiritual wellbeing.
