Gonojagoron Mancha activists caught two youths with two knives from the Mancha's procession in the capital's Shahbagh intersection and handed them over to the police yesterday.

The youths are Abdullah, 18, and Jewel Rana, 18, from Gopalpur village in Enayetpur upazila of Sirajganj, said Shahbagh police.

“Two knives were recovered from their possession, and the Detective Branch of police took them for further questioning,” Shibli Noman, assistant commissioner (Ramna zone) of Dhaka Metropolitan Police, told The Daily Star.

“They were trying to go near Imran H Sarker, who was at the front of the procession, by pushing others,” said Akramul Haque, an activist of the platform.

“Their movements raised suspicion, and when we tried to push  them back, a knife fell off from the bag of one youth,” he said, adding that the incident occurred around 5:15pm.

The activists held the duo till the end of their programme and informed the Shahbagh police.

“When we asked them why they came to the procession with the knives, they gave confusing answers,” said Haque.

Imran H Sarker, spokesperson of a faction of the Mancha, said around 3:00pm, five men roamed around their sit-in programme at the intersection in a suspicious way. But they went away as soon as police were informed.

Gonojagoron Mancha, a platform that demands maximum punishment for war criminals of 1971, organised the programme, demanding an immediate execution of war criminal Mohammad Kamaruzzaman.