Law enforcement agencies obstructed the fans from holding their scheduled human chain programme to voice their demand of nominal punishment for suspended cricketer Mohammad Ashraful after he admitted his involvement in match-fixing.
A group of facebook fans, who interacted through different social media networks, started to gather at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium to join the programme in small processions after 10:00am with festoons and banners backing Ashraful.
The roadside in front of the Bangladesh Cricket Board began to get slightly crowded with fans of Ashraful, comprised mostly of students from different private and public universities, carrying banners and festoons that read ‘Forgive Ashraful, he was trapped’ and ‘Please minimise Ashraful’s punishment and find out the real culprits’.
However, the gathering crowd could hardly execute their plan after the police arrived and started dispersing them before they could form the human chain.
Fans mostly arrived to express their sympathy for Ashraful after being moved by seeing him in tears when he was banned from all cricket activities by the BCB on June 4.
The crowd shouted out slogans asking the concerned authorities to be kind to Ashraful before handing out his punishment.
Ashraful profusely apologised to the nation hours after the decision of the BCB was aired on several television channels with tears in his eyes as he admitted to have made confession to the International Cricket Council’s Anti-Corruption and Security Unit about his alleged involvement in match-fixing.
Jashim Uddin, assistant deputy commissioner of Dhaka Metropolitan Police of Mirpur zone, told reporters that the crowd tried to hold the human chain programme without permission from the relevant authorities.
‘We can’t allow them to hold the programme since they had no permission,’ said Jashim.
‘They just left the scene as we asked them,’ said Jashim, denying the allegation that police resorted to baton charge to disperse the crowd.
An Ashraful fan, who preferred not to be named, said, ‘We requested the police to allow us to hold the human chain but we were not given permission.’
The fan went on to say that thousands of facebook fans of Ashraful were expected to join the programme.
The BCB said it will take a final decision regarding Ashraful once the ACSU submits their report. The report is expected to be available at any moment.
When contacted on Sunday evening, Ashraful expressed his satisfaction after witnessing the incident on television.
‘It is always nice to be loved by fans,’ Ashraful told New Age.
‘Though I don’t have any words for them at the moment,’ said Ashraful.
The 28-year-old batsman, who has been playing international cricket for the last 12 years, was only 17 years and 61 days old when he made his Test debut against Sri Lanka at the Sinhalese Sports Club ground on September 6, 2001.
-With New Age input
