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BNP banks on Hefajat

Plans to back Islamist group's Nov 15 rally to strengthen anti-govt agitation

Rashidul Hasan
The main opposition BNP is looking to intensify its anti-government movement by cashing in on the Hefajat-e Islam's planned rally in the capital on November 15.
The BNP-led 18-party alliance has decided to start a nonstop agitation from November 10 for a non-party interim administration to oversee the next general election.
To add to the pressure on the Hasina government, the opposition wants the Islamist group to stage a show of strength
through the rally.
The Hefajat-e Islam will press home its 13-point demand, including punishment of "atheist bloggers" and cancellation of women policy, on November 15.
BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia has advised them to ensure a massive gathering that day, Hefajat sources said. On this issue, she talked with two Dhaka city unit leaders of Hefajat at her Gulshan office recently.
The opposition leader has already asked one of her trusted senior leaders to maintain liaison with the Hefajat's Dhaka unit and to
BNP banks on
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fulfil the Islamist body's requirements for staging a mammoth gathering.
Top leaders of her party's Dhaka city unit have been instructed to cooperate with Hefajat organisers.
Besides, Jamaat-e-Islami and its allies in the 18-party combine - Islami Oikya Jote (IOJ) and Khelafat-e Majlish - are playing vital roles in organising the November 15 gathering, said the sources.
Many leaders of IOJ components - Khelafat-e Islami and Nezam-e Islam - are also working to make the rally a success.
A number of leaders of IOJ and Khelafat-e Majlish hold top positions in the Hefajat-e Islam. They were among the key organisers of the Hefajat's much-hyped May 5 rally.
Talking to The Daily Star last night, a Khelafat-e Islami leader, who also holds posts at IOJ and Hefajat, said he recently met Khaleda at her Gulshan office.
The BNP chief at the meeting enquired about their activities as well as the planned November 15
rally and advised them to ensure a massive antigovernmentdemonstration, he said.
Hefajat-e Islam, a Qawmi madrasa-based organisation, was not on the scene when the Shahbagh movement started on February 5. Its presence was felt with the killing of blogger Rajib, a Shahbagh activist who was branded as an atheist.
From a grand rally on May 5, Hefajat leaders called for ouster of the Awami League government labelling it an "associate of atheists".
After thousands of Hefajat members had taken position that night at the Shapla Chattar, the BNP chairperson called upon her party leaders and activists to lend a hand to the Islamists.
Only a day before, she had issued a 48-hour ultimatum to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to meet opposition's demand for non-party caretaker govern ment system.
A number of leaders of Hefajat and the opposition said BNP and Jamaat had backed the Islamists in a bid to destabilise the administration.
Law enforcers, however, managed to flash out the
Islamists from Shapla Chattar at the cost of lives of 18 Hefajat men and police.
After the operation, the BNP-led opposition alliance and Hefajat started saying hundreds were killed in a "bloody massacre".
Hefajat in different parts of the country, especially in villages, launched a massive campaign against the Hasina government terming it anti-Islam.
Talking to The Daily Star, some opposition leaders said they think Hefajat's anti-government propaganda accusing government of killing thousands on the night of May 5 is one of the reasons behind their unexpected and landslide victory in elections to five city corporations.
Again on April 6, a few lakh Islamists assembled under the banner of Hefajat-e Islam at Motijheel and gave the government three weeks' time to meet their demands.
The rally was the culmination of a propaganda orchestrated by the Jamaat-e-Islami that organisers of the Shahbagh movement were atheists.