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Jamaat-e-Islami offensive with purposes
Jamaat planned to go violent for bucking up party men, giving good account of itself to govt, alliesJamaat-e-Islami's violent showdown in the capital and elsewhere in the country on Monday reflected the party's newly adopted policy of boosting the morale of its activists demoralised due to the arrest of top leaders of the party on war crimes charges. "The showdown and anti-government agitation will certainly boost our activists' morale and also increase our organizational strength," Jamaat politician ATM Shamsul Islam told The Daily Star yesterday. From now on, the intensity of Jammat's agitation against the government will increase day by day, Shamsul Islam said. Jamaat insiders said the party believes it is high time to show the ruling Awami League its strength and to create pressure on the government to stop the move to try top Jamaat leaders on charges of war crimes. The show of strength will also remind Jamaat's ally BNP of its importance, they added. Jamaat is a major component of the BNP-led four-party alliance. Asked, Jamaat's Assistant Secretary General Mujibur Rahman said, "This demonstration of strength has benefited our leaders and activists. It is true that many of them have been locked away following this. But it will intensify the anti-government agitation". He also said staging of a big showdown was also necessary ahead of the September 27grand rally of the four-party in the capital. It will help gear up preparations for the rally. Jamaat suffered a debacle in the last parliamentary polls in which it got only two seats. Talking to this correspondent earlier, several Jamaat leaders said arrest of their five top leaders including party chief Motiur Rahman Nizami ...During the liberation war of 1971, Nizami formed the Al-Badr Force and acted as its supreme commander. The Al-Badr militia took active part in rape, extortion, looting and killing of Bangladeshis who supported the liberation, including a pre-planned massacre on December 14, 1971, when the Al-Badr militia along with Pakistan Army rounded up hundreds of doctors, professors, writers, and other Bengali intellectuals, and executed them... and Secretary General Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mojaheed was a major blow to the party. It was the worst crisis the party faced since its inception, they said. Following the arrest of these leaders, Jamaat's agitation programme was limited to issuing blurbs, and bringing out small processions and holding rallies mostly near the party's city unit office at Naya Paltan. But on Monday, hundreds of activists of Jamaat and pro-Jamaat student body Islami Chhatra Shibir ... the student wing of the Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh... fought pitched battles with police and set fire to their vehicles. Asked about this, Jamaat leader Mujibur Rahman said they cannot wait silently for long for better days to come. He mentioned that trial of party leader Delawar Hossain Sayedee on war crimes charges has started. And it is natural party leaders and activists will go tough on it, he added. Posted by: trailing wife 2011-09-21 |
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