Bangladesh Islamist Battle Police

Dhaka’s streets rang with the sound of gunfire, explosions and tear-gas canister as Islamist protesters demand laws against blasphemy, leaving four dead.

With police firing bullets and tear gas and the Islamists throwing explosives and chunks of bricks, the street battles went on for hours. At least three bodies were left hanging on the streets and one more person was reported dead on at the hospital.

According to the police, many people were hurt, including policemen and journalists.

Secretary General of the ruling Awami League, Syed Ashraful Islam, said that the demonstrators set fire to the office of the Communist Party of Bangladesh and ransacked several other business establishments in Central Dhaka.

The government was warned by the Islam that things could become chaotic if they did not end the program and leave Dhaka peacefully. But during a rally in the evening, Hezefat leaders said that they would not leave the capital until their demands were given.

Hezefat’s demand for an anti-blasphemy law is mainly for the group of bloggers, online activists, and authors they called “atheists” and accused of degrading Islam and Mohammed.

The online activists that had the pioneering role in organizing the Shahbagh sit-in denied that they were atheists.

The bloggers organized a sit-in campaign at Dhaka’s Shahbagh Square in Februray. They were demanding a ban on Jamaat-e-Islami, Bangladesh’s largest Islamic party.

They also called for the death penalty of the Jamaat-e-Islami leaders for conivicted war crimes charges that were dated way back 1971. This was the time where Bangladesh won its independence from Pakistan.

Protesters of Hezefat said that they wanted the government to meet 13 demands, including the restoration of “absolute trust and faith in the Almighty Allah” in the constitution and capital punishment for those who would degrade Islam and its prophet.

Source: cnn.com, bbc.co.uk