Hefajote-e Islam Clashed with police in Dhaka
Fighting broke out as
police and paramilitary guards used tear gas, stun grenades and rubber bullets
to control an estimated 75,000 demonstrators demanding a new anti-blasphemy law
and the death sentence for a group of “atheist bloggers”.
Several
hundred thousand supporters of the conservative Hefazat-e Islami group, which
is based on traditional madrassa religious schools, launched their protest on May
5, 2013, when they blocked several key roads into the Dhaka and clashed with
police. Several of their supporters were killed when police opened fire on them
but the Hepajote-e Islam claimed they lost their 2000 activists in this
protest. The dead
in Dhaka included at least two policemen, according to officials.
A spokesman for the police told, they had no
choice but to act after coming under attack from demonstrators. “We were forced
to act after they unlawfully continued their gathering at Motijheel area in
Dhaka. They attacked us with bricks, stones, rods and bamboo sticks.
