Dhaka: Jamaat’s defiant bid to stage a grand rally in the capital Monday failed as police enforced a government ban rounding up anyone who moved towards the venue at Paltan Maidan.

“The government imposed ‘political curfew’ to foil our scheduled rally,” Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami secretary-general Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mujahid said, announcing the postponement of the much-orchestrated programme.   

Witnesses and official sources said police held over 50 activists in raids in the city’s Paltan Maidan area from Sunday midnight to Monday noon, in a preemptive action against the Islamic party’s defiant move to hold the rally.

All the detainees were assembling near Baitul Mukarram national mosque after Fazr prayer to attend the rally, police said.

“They were accused of preparing to attend a pre-scheduled rally at Paltan Maidan violating section 144, a ban imposed by Dhaka Metropolitan Police,” said OC of Paltan Thana Shahidul Haque.

Earlier, police Sunday picked up seven activists of Jamaat from Uttara as they were campaigning the rally.

In the face of the government’s preventive action, Jamaat eventually called off the rally, which was apparently planned as a show of their strength at a time when all the top leaders of the party are listed for standing trial for their alleged involvement in crime against humanity during the 1971 Bangladesh liberation war against Pakistani junta.            

Mujahid announced the party decision to abandon the rally at an impromptu press briefing at the party’s Maghbazar central office.

To protest the police intervention, Jamaat threw an action programme of staging demonstrations in all divisional headquarters, including the capital, Dhaka, tomorrow (Tuesday) and in all district and divisional headquarters on June 6.

Bitterly criticizing the government for holding them down by using police force, the former minister said, “The government in a planned way spoilt the rally to forestall its interaction with the people.”
 
The Jamaat leader demanded that the government withdraw the restrictions on holding rally and procession in and around Paltan and set free the detained party leaders and workers.

The police administration on Saturday night clamped down a ban on holding any rally at Paltan Paltan Maidan and adjacent areas as Jamaat-e-Islami and Jubo League, the ruling party’s youth front, called meetings at the same venue for the same time Monday.

Jamaat leader Delwar Hossain Saydee, Mohammad Kamaruzzaman and ATM Azharul Islam were present at the press meet.

BST 1604 HRS, May 31,2010
MM/RR/MMK/ARF/LY/MUA