Staff Correspondent | Published: 00:34, Mar 05,2023

A platform called Nipiraner Biruddhe Shahbagh holds a protest rally in front of the National Museum on Saturday afternoon, protesting at the attack on Ahmadiyya community in Panchagarh. — New Age photo

Eminent citizens and different socio-cultural and rights groups have condemned the attack on the minority Ahmadiyya community that killed two people and injured scores in a clash between the police and Islamists in Panchagarh on Friday.

Ahmadiyyas alleged that over 150 houses were torched, and several hundred houses were looted and vandalised across five villages in Panchagarh during the clash that erupted over an annual congregation of the community.

A total of 30 eminent citizens, including academics, cultural activists, and human rights activists, under the banner of the Sammilita Samajik Andolan in a statement on Saturday, condemned the attack on the Ahmadiyya community and expressed concern.

They recalled that Ahmadiyyas in Panchagarh were no strangers to such attacks, as the community was also subjected to attacks, including arson, in 2019.

Such an incident is against secularism and the constitutional guarantee of religious freedom and is discriminatory, they said, blaming the communal policy of the state and politics behind those attacks.

The signatories of the statement include former advisers to a caretaker government Sultana Kamal and Rasheda K Chowdhury, human rights activist Khushi Kabir, Sammilita Samajik Andolan presidium member Ramendu Majumdar, Liberation War Museum trustee Sarwar Ali, Bangladesh Mahila Parishad president Fauzia Moslem, and Dhaka University economics department professor MM Akash.

A platform called Nipiraner Biruddhe Shahbagh held a protest rally in front of the Bangladesh National Museum on Saturday afternoon, criticising the administration, law enforcement agencies, and the government for their failure to protect the Ahmadiyya community from the attack.

Speakers, including politicians, said that the ruling Awami League and the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party were using the religion card to increase their vote banks.

They also demanded the arrest of the attackers and ensure exemplary punishment for attacks on the minority group in Bangladesh.

Bangladesh Juba Union president Khan Asaduzzaman Masum and its general secretary Jahangir Alam Nannu and Bangladesh Udichi Shilpigosthi general secretary Amit Ranjan Dey, among others, spoke at the rally.

‘BNP and AL are supporting the communal attackers for their vote bank,’ said Khan Asaduzzaman, also urging the government to take steps to ensure the end of such incidents in the days to come.

Jahangir Alam said that such attacks on minorities took place due to the absence of democracy.

The rights group Ain O Salish Kendra, in a statement on Saturday, condemned the attack on the Ahmadiyya community and expressed its concern.

Condemning the attack and expressing deep concern, Bangladesh Mahila Parishad, in another statement on the day, urged people from all walks of life to create a social movement to prevent such an attack.

Bangladesh Hindu-Buddhist-Christian Oikya Parishad, in a statement, protested and condemned the attack and demanded the arrest and exemplary punishment of those involved.

Forum for Secular Bangladesh and the Trial of War Criminals of 1971, in a statement, condemned the attack and demanded the arrest of the attackers.

source https://www.newagebd.net/article/195999/protests-at-attacks-on-ahmadiyyas-pour-in