40 hurt as Islamist party activists, Police clash

At least 40 people, including 10 policemen, were injured in Dhaka as Islamist party activists on Thursday clashed with the police at the north gate of Baitul Mukarram.
The clashes taking place on the stretch between the Paltan crossing and the Dainik Bangla crossing continued for more than an hour.
The activists set fire to two motorcycles of the law enforcers and vandalised seven vehicles near the mosque. Traffic remained disrupted for about two hours.
Witness said the clashes began when the police stopped a band of activists of the Islamic Constitution Movement, Khelafat Andolan, Islami Chhatra Majlish, Islami Oikya Jote and Khelafat Majlish, teamed up under the banner of the ‘committee on the protection of Qur’anic laws,’ headed for the Chief Adviser’s Office to submit a memorandum against the National Women Development Policy. Several hundred people of Islamist organisations assembled at the north gate of the mosque soon after the zuhr prayer and went out on demonstrations against the policy and demanded its cancellation.
The lawmen kept the activists confined inside the north gate of the mosque by putting up barricades on all the exit points.
After the demonstrations, ATM Hemayet Uddin of the Islamic Constitution Movement and Maulana Zafar Ullah Khan of Khelafat Majlish led a procession towards the Chief Adviser’s Office to submit the memorandum, but the police stopped them from marching ahead. As the party activists tried to break through the barricade at around 1:45pm, the police charged at them with truncheons and split the procession into two groups.
One of the groups rushed onto the road near the south gate of the mosque when the police continued charging at the other group with truncheons inside the gate. At least 30 of them were injured.
The group on the road clashed with the police by throwing stones, in which 10 policemen, including Motijheel zone assistant commissioner Pankaj Chandra Roy, were injured.
They also vandalised seven vehicles stranded on the roads and the other group set on fire two motorcycles of the lawmen parked inside the gate.
The injured activists were admitted to Markajul Islam Hospital, Dhaka Orthopaedics Hospital and Dhaka Medical College Hospital. The injured policemen were taken to Rajarbagh Police Line Hospital.
The Paltan police officer-in-charge, Farid Ahmed, in the afternoon told New Age, ‘The situation is under control and the police charged at the activists with truncheon as they brought out the procession in violation of the emergency rules.’