Shawdesh Desk;

Forty-six activists of Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami were arrested on Friday morning following a clash between the police and the Jamaat activists at Jatrabari.

The clash erupted as police firing birdshots barred Jamaat activities from carrying out a procession.

Jamaat brought out the procession demanding the next general elections be held under a neutral caretaker government and protesting at the police obstruction to holding the namaz-e-janaza of the party leader and war crime convict Delwar Hossain Sayedee.

The Dhaka Metropolitan Police deputy commissioner for Wari division, Ziaul Ahsan Talukder, filed a case for vandalism and police assault with Jatrabari police station after police arrested 46 Jamaat men while around 500 more activists were named in the case.

He said that Jamaat leaders and activists brought out a procession suddenly without police permission. They hurled crude bombs, brickbats at police when police tried to stop them.

In response, police fired birdshots to disperse Jamaat activists and arrested 46 of them, said the police officer.

Jamaat leaders and activists, however, said that the police suddenly fired teargas shells at the procession and arrested numerous leaders and activists.

In a social media statement, Jamaat said that they were marching in a procession. Police suddenly launched the unprovoked attack with opening firearms and teargas shells.

The party activists said that their procession started from Jatrabari kitchen market area in the morning led by and Dhaka south city unit secretary Shafiqul Islam Masud as several hundred activists joined the procession.

Jamaat leaders demanded the ruling Awami League step down and hold general elections under a neutral caretaker government.

The party also demanded immediate release of their arrested leaders and activists and protested at the police obstruction to holding namaz-e-janaza of Delwar Hossain Sayedee in the capital.

Meanwhile, police arrested five Jamaat leaders, including Moulvibazar district unit president and secretary while holding a party meeting on Thursday night.

Moulvibazar Sadar police station officer-in-charge Harun-ur-Rashid Chowdhury said the leaders were holding the meeting at a home of Kanakpur union of Sadar upazila for ‘planning subversive activities’.

Based on a tip-off, police arrested five people, including Moulvibazar district unit president Shahed Ali and secretary Yamir Ali.