Shawdesh Desk:

Police stopped the Islami Andolan Bangladesh’s march towards the Election Commission headquarters in Dhaka at Shantinagar in Dhaka Wednesday afternoon.

The leaders and activists of the IAB brought out the procession from the north gate of Baitul Mokarram National Mosque to protest against EC’s decision to announce the schedule for the next general Election before resolving the present political crisis.

The marchers chanted slogans to press home their demands for immediate resignation of the Awami League government and formation of a national government in consultation with the main opposition political parties.

They also demanded release of the political prisoners and holding a dialogue mediated by the country’s president, scraping of the current Election Commission, and refraining from announcing the schedule of the next general elections until the environment for holding a free, fair and credible general elections is created.

The police put barricade at Shantinagar to bar the procession from advancing forward and the IAB ended the programme there through a short rally.

The leaders announced to hold protest rallies in all the town and cities across the country on Thursday if the election schedule was announced Wednesday evening.

On November 12, the IAB called on the Awami League government to refrain from holding the next general elections unilaterally and urged the EC to refrain from announcing election schedule until resolving the political crisis.

At a press conference at its central office at Purana Palatan, IAB amir Syed Muhammad Rezaul Karim announced to bring out the procession towards the EC on the day of announcement of election schedule, if declared before ensuring participation of all political parties in the upcoming election.