Police swoop on Mancha activists

Police again swooped on the activists of Ganajagaran Mancha at Shahbagh in the city on Thursday night. Witnesses said several hundred activists of Ganajagaran Mancha gathered at Shahbagh intersection to stage a protest rally there a little while after the 1st 12 hours of the Jamaat-Shibir enforced nationwide 2-phase 48-hour hartal passed with stray incidents. As the Mancha activists attempted to stage the rally in front of the National Museum halting traffic, police in riot gear attacked them. The club-wielding riot police resorted to indiscriminate lathi-charge (clubbing) leaving a dozen protesters injured. Police claimed they tried to take out a procession disrupting vehicular movement in the area. Mancha activists said they wanted to stage a peaceful rally there in protest against the Supreme Court verdict on Delawar Hossain Sayedee’s appeal against his death penalty. The Mancha supporters said they gathered at Shahbagh intersection also to register protest over Wednesday’s police atrocities against them. On Wednesday afternoon, a few minutes after the SC delivered its verdict on Sayedee, Mancha supporters began protesting at Shahbagh intersection and police chased them, firing teargas canisters, using water cannon, leaving scores of activists, incuding Mancha spokesperson Imran H Sarkar, injured, according to a news agency.