Hefajat-e-Islam Bangladesh has threatened to repeat the Shapla Chattar incident, if needed 100 times, if any defamatory remark is made against Islam or the Prophet (PBUH).

The Chattogram-based Islamist group’s General Secretary Junaid Babunagri made the remark at a rally in Chattogram.

He was addressing a rally on port city’s Jamiyatul Falah Mosque premises after Zohr prayers yesterday.

Earlier on Monday, the group announced a countrywide programme for yesterday to press home their 13-point demand, which include punishment of the police personnel involved in firing on “Towhidi Muslim Janata” during a rally in Bhola on Sunday.

At least four people were killed and more than a hundred injured as zealots clashed with police in Borhanuddin upazila over a hate conversation spread through Facebook.

At yesterday’s event, Babunagri alleged that police fired on innocents and they must be punished for that.

“We did not go to Shapla Chattar in 2013 to grab power… We had shed our blood to uphold dignity of the Prophet (PBUH)…,” he said, adding that those who were killed and injured in the incidents [Bhola and Shapla Chattar] did so for the Prophet (PBUH).

At one point, the Hefajat leader asked the crowd to raise their hands to repeat the Shapla Chattar incident at least 100 times, if needed. The activists also brought out a procession from Wasa intersection to realise their demands.

SHAPLA CHATTAR VIOLENCE

Hefajat men marched towards Dhaka and held a rally on April 6, 2013 at Shapla Chattar in Motijheel to press for their 13-point demand which included enactment of anti-blasphemy law and measures for stringent punishment of “atheist bloggers”.

They returned a month later and occupied Shapla Chattar on May 5, 2013. Paltan and Motijheel areas were plunged into mayhem as unruly Hefajat men burned down and vandalised public and private properties and clashed with law enforcers.

Its activists were driven out from there in the early hours of May 6 by the law enforcement agencies. At least 39 people were killed in the two days’ violence.