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DHAKA: Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami Secretary General and former MP Mia Golam Parwar has challenged the government to prove its opposition to fascism by arresting those allegedly involved in the killings of 28 October 2006.
He demanded that the cases over the violence be reopened and the perpetrators brought to justice.
Golam Parwar made the remarks as the chief guest at a rally organised by Jamaat’s Dhaka South unit at the north gate of the Baitul Mukarram National Mosque on Wednesday afternoon, demanding justice for the killings and violence involving sticks and oars on 28 October 2006. A protest procession was brought out after the rally.
“If the government is genuinely against fascism and killers, let it arrest those responsible for the October 28 killings and prove that it stands against fascists. Then we will believe that the BNP government also considers the Awami League fascist. Otherwise, we will understand that you had an understanding with them behind the scenes that day,” he said.
Golam Parwar said the BNP-led four-party alliance government was in power when the killings took place. The police, Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) and armed forces were under its authority, he said, questioning why the then BNP home minister could not be reached by phone that day.
He also questioned why the BNP held a separate rally despite being part of the same four-party alliance.
The Jamaat leader alleged that the BNP’s rally at Naya Paltan had passed without incident, while activists of the Awami League, JASAD led by Hasanul Haq Inu, the Bangladesh Samajtantrik Dal (BASAD), the Communist Party of Bangladesh and the Workers Party, along with other leftist groups, attacked Jamaat’s gathering at the north gate of Baitul Mukarram with sticks, oars and weapons.
He further alleged that Jamaat activists had been killed with sticks and oars on the instructions of then prime minister Sheikh Hasina, while the government of the day had failed to take action despite the brutality.
Golam Parwar claimed that the Sheikh Hasina government had made the charge sheet in the October 28 cases disappear. He called for the cases to be revived and for Sheikh Hasina, Inu, Rashed Khan Menon and Bappa Aditya Basu, whom he accused of celebrating over the bodies of victims, to be arrested and brought to justice.
Speaking as a special guest, Jamaat’s central executive council member and Dhaka South secretary Dr Shafiqul Islam Masud, MP, said Jamaat leaders and activists could not be eliminated despite the killings on 28 October 2006 and would not be eliminated in the future.
He claimed that 14 people were killed in Dhaka that day, but Jamaat activists could not be driven away from Paltan.
Masud said some people were again talking about eliminating the organisation, but those who had tried to do so had failed. Rejecting allegations that Jamaat maintained close ties with the Awami League, he accused those making such claims of having now become a replacement for the Awami League.
Dhaka University Central Students’ Union (DUCSU) Vice-President Abu Sadiq Kayem said justice would prevail on the land where the martyrs had shed their blood.
Referring to the July uprising of 2024, he said it had taken place on the blood of those killed on 28 October and that the victims had taught people never to compromise with fascism.
He said a prosperous Dhaka would be built in the upcoming local elections on the blood of those killed on 28 October, the martyrs of the July uprising and Shaheed Osman Hadi. He alleged that even after 20 years, those responsible for the violence involving sticks and oars had not been brought to justice.
The rally was chaired by Abdus Sabur Fakir, Jamaat’s Dhaka South deputy amir and a member of its central working committee. Kamrul Ahsan Hasan, the unit’s office secretary, moderated the event.
Among others, the speakers included Jamaat central Majlis-e-Shura members and Dhaka South assistant secretaries Kamal Hossain, MP, Dr Abdul Mannan and Md Shamsur Rahman; central Majlis-e-Shura member and Dhaka South working committee member Syed Zainul Abedin, MP; and Abdus Salam, president of the Bangladesh Labour Welfare Federation.
Jamaat leaders and activists from central and Dhaka metropolitan units attended the rally. The procession started from the north gate of Baitul Mukarram, passed through Paltan intersection and ended in Bijoynagar.