Hours into now-banned Jamaat e Islami’s announcement to upstage the government, its student arm Islami Chhatra Shibir revealed their cadres are out on a mission for the establishment of an Islamic republic run on Shariah law by unleashing a wave of violence.
Hailing their cadres as pack of lions, a post uploaded on the verified Facebook page of the outfit clearly mentioned “a pack of lions are on the prowl” and “nobody can dare to stop them.” The same post also warned of flaring up of fire sparks.
Minority leaders also appalled at the post as it comes hours after the parent body Jamaat-e-Islami, made a public pledge to extend all-out support to BNP’s one-point demand to overthrow the government. Jamaat has a history of siding with the Pakistani army which committed genocide during the 1971 Liberation War in Bangladesh.
On Thursday the government banned Jamaat and Shibir citing evidence of terrorism carried out by the organisations using the quota reform student movement as a shield.
Even before the ban was declared political observers said this threat by Shibir holds serious potential of unleashing barbarity and violence on the streets, a pattern reflected even in the run-up to the 2013-14 polls.
"Every time threats from Islami Chhatra Shibir and Jamaat-e-Islami came for ouster of the government violence was their template," said Ranjan Karmakar, a human rights activist and a minority leader.
He said even in 2013 citing the rumour of their spiritual leader Delwar Hossain Sayedee sighted on the moon they unleashed carnage on minorities in 32 districts to stop war crimes trial.
The latest open call of Shibir resembles an unprecedented threat that coincided with the event of March for Justice held on Wednesday on the banner of quota reform, according to the observers.
They said Shibir cadres might disguise themselves as quota protester and use the cover to accomplish the undemocratic exercises hiding their political identities.
On Facebook accounts that have been consistently promoting contents of rarely accessed footage of top former leaders of the outfit posted another video with an open call for Islamic Jihad using the pretext of quota movement.
Media reports found several cadres of ICS failed to accomplish what appeared a mission to capture power by unleashing violence on streets, isolate all entry points connecting Dhaka posing as students not belonging to any ideology, a move to devise students.
Tonmoy Ahmed, albd web team coordinator, earlier posted a photo of a flag that has been used by militants symbolising Islamic revolution.
Tonmoy encountered one of the ruthless machete attacks from Shibir activists in 2013 while he was a top leader of the student league BUET unit and vocal against war criminals but survived the attack.
There are reported involvement of ICS cadres who concealed their political identity rather without carrying banners of Shibir to dodge detection and disguised as general students launched a targeted attack against activists of Bangladesh Student League in the latest bout of violence
As many as 15 leaders and activists of Bangladesh Chhatra League in Chattogram were reportedly thrown off a five-story building and tendons of some of them were severed.
The critically injured students told the media that Chhatra Shibir cadres took part in the violence.
