Warning that fundamentalist forces would be contained strictly as per the country's laws, Home Minister Mohiuddin Khan Alamgir yesterday urged citizens to catch Jamaat-Shibir men, wherever they were found, and hand them over to police.
He said as police was the government's “democratic battalion”, they showed the highest patience after being attacked by Jamaat-e-Islami and pro-Jamaat student organisation Islami Chhatra Shibir men for “four consecutive days”.
But police would no more show restraint, warned the AL Presidium member.
Addressing a protest rally on Bangabandhu Avenue with Jubo League Chairman Omar Faroque Chowdhury in the chair, Alamgir urged citizens to remain alert so that reactionary forces do not get the opportunity to create anarchy.
Jubo Sangram Parishad, a platform of youth bodies of the ruling AL-led 14-party combine, organised the rally protesting the attacks and vandalism of public property by the Jamaat-Shibir men.
Workers' Party of Bangladesh President Rashed Khan Menon said time had come again to build resistance against fundamentalist forces.
BNP's leaders were demanding release of war criminals who were facing trial for their crimes against humanity during the 1971 Liberation War. They were patronising Jamaat-Shibir's planned violence to protect the latter, he said.
Omar Faroque said the time had come to think about the role of police following the attack. Fundamentalist forces carried out attacks one after another but the role of police is not clear, he said.
He questioned whether followers of Lutfozzaman Babar, the former state minister for home facing trial in different cases including the one for the August 21 grenade attack on a 2004 AL rally, were becoming active in the police force.
Jubo League General Secretary Harunur Rashid, Jatiya Jubo Jote President Rokunuzzaman Rokon, Jubo Maitree President Mostafa Alamgir Raton and Jatiya Jubo Oikya President Khairul Alam also spoke on the occasion.