Jamaat’s hartal rescheduled for Thursday

Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami has deferred its Monday’s nationwide daylong hartal to Thursday due to the second phase of Biswa Ijtema and Saraswati Puja.
The Islamist party, however, will stage ‘peaceful’ demonstrations across the country on Monday protesting what the party said the government’s design to kill its ameer Moulana Matiur Rahman Nizami.
In a statement on Saturday, Jamaat acting secretary general Dr Shafiqur Rahman said they will observe shutdown programme on Thursday instead of Monday so that the devotees joined the Biswa Ijtema can smoothly return to their own destinations and the Hindu community can observe the Puja.
The second phase of Biswa Ijtema that began on Friday morning on the bank of the Turag River at Tongi on the outskirts of the capital will conclude on Sunday through Akheri Munajat (concluding prayers) while the Saraswati Puja, one of the main religious festivals of the Hindu community, will be celebrated on Tuesday.
Earlier on Friday, Dr Shafiqur Rahman in another statement announced the shutdown programme for Monday protesting the capital punishment against its ameer Moulana Matiur Rahman Nizami in the Chittagong 10-truck arms smuggling case.
“The government in a planned way is conspiring to kill Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami ameer and ex-minister Moulana Matiur Rahman Nizami. In a bid to implement its plan, it arranged a farce in the name of trial charging him with false and fabricated allegation,” he said.
Meanwhile, a Chittagong court on Thursday sentenced to death 14 people, including war crimes accused Matiur Rahman Nizami and former BNP state minister for Home Affairs Lutfozzaman Babar, in the sensational 10-truck arms smuggling case, after 10 years of the incident.
Reacting to the verdict, Jamaat-e-Islami also on Thursday termed the verdict politically motivated one.
Sahfiq urged the country’s people to observe their shutdown programme spontaneously in a peaceful manner.