Staff Correspondent
At least five people were injured in a fresh clash inside Baitul Mukarram national mosque between the group loyal to the new Khatib and the people opposing his appointment before jumma prayers on Friday.
The scuffles broke out when several hundred people, mostly Qaumi Madrassah students and teachers, started shouting slogans against the new Khatib Principal Mohammad Salahuddin as soon as he began jumma sermons at about 12:50pm.
Enraged by the anti-Salahuddin slogans, his supporters pounced on the protesters, beat them up and drove them out of the mosque. Five protesters were injured in the attack.
The people supporting Mufti Salahuddin vowed not to allow acting Khatib Mufti Nuruddin access to the national mosque again.
It was the third consecutive Friday that the two groups fought inside the Baitul Miukarram mosque over who should lead the jumma prayers.
Similar incidents took place inside the mosque on January 9 and 16.
The anti-Salahuddin people held a separate jumma congregation at the north gate of the mosque under the leadership Mufti Abdullah before the start of the main jumma prayers under Khatib Salahuddin.
Later, under the banner of Samillita Iman Akida Hefazat Committee, they brought out a procession brandishing shoes and sandals outside the mosque and chanting slogans against Salahuddin.
They also shouted slogans against Bangla daily Inqilab branding it a ‘bid’ati’ newspaper and set its copies afire on the road.
The marchers held a brief rally in front of the National Press Club.
‘Our demand is clear. The Muslims do not want to see a fraud lead the jumma prayers at the national mosque which is the mosque of the 14 crore people of the country,’ Jamal Naser Chowdhury, convener of Hefazat Committee, told the gathering.
‘We want the government to take a decision before the next jumma,’ Chowdhury, also secretary general of Amra Dhakabashi, an organisation of the Dhakaites, said. ‘The committee will sit next Monday to decide its next course of action.’
Speaking on the occasion, Muhibullah, member-secretary of the committee, said, ‘The government will have to withdraw Salahuddin, whose belief is contradictory to Islam, before next Friday; otherwise, we will take over the national mosque,’ he declared.
‘No fraud or pro-Maududi imam will be allowed to lead the jumma prayers at the national mosque,’ he said.
Security was tightened in the area surrounding the mosque and water cannons were on standby to prevent troubles. Police frisked the people going to the mosque for jumma congregation at its entrance. No one was allowed to carry even pens while entering the mosque.
Courtesy: newagebd.com
