Procession to home ministry tomorrow

A faction of the anti-war crimes Gonojagoron Mancha will lead a “coffin” procession towards the home ministry tomorrow and hold a solidarity rally in the capital Friday, demanding arrest of the killers of publisher Faisal Arefin Dipan and the attackers of three others.

Imran H Sarker, spokesperson of the faction, made the announcement after the platform enforced a countrywide six-hour hartal yesterday demanding the same.

Unknown assailants hacked to death Dipan, owner of Jagriti Prokashani at Shahbagh, and in a separate attack, injured Shuddhoswar's owner Ahmedur Rashid Tutul and bloggers Tareque Rahim and Ranadipam Basu at Lalmatia on Saturday. 

Dipan and Tutul were publishers of slain secularist writer-blogger Avijit Roy.

The six-hour strike ended peacefully except for a few incidents of throwing stones at passenger vehicles in the capital and Chittagong.

However, none was injured.

In the capital, the Mancha activists brought a march in Shahbagh intersection area in support of the hartal with student and political organisations joining in.

The pro-hartal activists also blocked the Shahbagh intersection for around three hours, halting vehicular movement.

While marching towards Matsya Bhaban, they threw bricks at two buses near Ramna Park around 7:00am.

There was a comparatively thin presence of vehicles on the roads yesterday.

However, inter-district buses left the three bus terminals on time, Kamrul Islam, a manager of Sohagh Paribahan, told The Daily Star.

In the port city, most educational institutions and shopping malls remained shut during the hartal hours, reports our Chittagong office.

Witnesses said the Mancha activists hurled bricks at some vehicles at Jamal Khan Road around 9:00am, suspending vehicular movement in the area till the end of the hartal at 12:00noon.

Police detained an activist of the Mancha at the spot but released him later, said sources.

In Savar, the activists blocked Dhaka-Aricha highway in front of Jahangirnagar University halting vehicular traffic between 8:30am and 11:00am. A large police contingent guarded the spot.

Protests were also organised by Gonojagoron Mancha in Barisal city in support of the hartal, reports our Barisal correspondent.

HANIF'S EFFIGY BURNT

The Mancha activists in Rangpur yesterday torched the effigy of Awami League leader Mahbubul Alam Hanif for his “derogatory” comments that the father of slain publisher Dipan did not want trial for his son's murder because "he might believe in the ideology of the killers and didn't want them punished".

Hanif later retracted his remarks in the face of huge criticism.