Hundreds of thousands of members of a Muslim group, Hifazat-e-Islam, rallied in Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh on 6 April to demand enactment of anti-blasphemy laws to punish people who insult Islam.The massive rally took place despite a daylong shutdown across the Muslim-majority country that was enforced by liberal and secular groups to denounce the rally.
As a result of the shutdown, roads were blocked and train and bus services were suspended, practically cutting Dhaka off from rest of the country.Still, hundreds of thousands of Hifazat-e-Islam members managed to join the rally.
While Hifazat-e-Islam said its rally was non-political, Khaleda Zia’s party Bangladesh National Party (BNP) and Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami (BJI) backed the demonstration.
The Hifazat-e-Islam group listed 13 demands, including reinstating “absolute trust and faith in the Almighty Allah” in the nation’s constitution, and passing a law providing for capital punishment for maligning Allah, Islam and its Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allah be to him).
The group’s other demands include declaring the minority Ahmadiya sect living in the country as non-Muslims and banning “all foreign culture, including free mixing of men and women.”
They demanded punishment of some bloggers tied to the movement in Shabagh, branding them ‘atheists’.
Hifazat-e Islam has demanded the removal of what they described as ‘atheist’ ministers from the Cabinet.They also demanded detention of ShahriarKabir, NasirUddin Yusuf Bachchu and Imran H Sarker for being ‘atheists’.Speakers there threatened to continue with their movement until the ‘atheists’ were tried.
Hifazat leader MamunulHaq asked Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to remove Bangladesh Workers Party chief Rashed Khan Menon, Information Minister HasanulHaqueInu and Planning Minister AK Khandker from the Cabinet. “Otherwise, your ‘boat’ will scuttle,” he warned.Boat is the electoral symbol of Awami League.
The rally came amid months of violence stemming from a bitter political rivalry between Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s government and the Zia-led opposition.Hasina initiated the war crimes trials in 2010. Ten of the defendants convicted or on trial are from Jamaat-e-Islami, while two others belong to Zia’s party.In February, the tribunal sentenced a senior Jamaat-e-Islami party leader to death, but the decision sparked violent clashes between opposition activists and police that left more than 70 people dead.
Activists of Hifazat-e-Islam left the WASA intersection in Chittagong city more than 24 hours after they began their sit-in programme there.After the group’s rally ended in Dhaka’s Motijheel on Saturday afternoon, the group members left the area right before the Maghrib prayers in the evening.
Home Minister Muhiuddin Khan Alamgir thanked Hifazat-e Islam for holding its rally ‘peacefully’. He told reporters after a meeting with his Cabinet colleagues that Hifazat-e Islam kept their promise of a peaceful gathering. “Thanks to them for that,” he said.