The group of ‘July warrior’ protesters who had kept the Shahbagh crossing in the capital Dhaka blocked since July 31 ended their blockade on Friday after police charged baton and another ‘July warrior’ group chased the blockading group.
The group of protesters, claiming themselves as ‘July warriors and family members of uprising martyrs’, blocked the Shahbagh crossing for the second day on Friday, demanding the implementation of the July Charter and the July Declaration.
The July Declaration will be an official declaration of the July mass uprising which ousted the authoritarian Awami League regime on August 5, 2024, and the July Charter will feature the consensus-based reform issues, endorsed by the political parties and the interim government’s chief adviser Professor Muhammad Yunus, who is also the chairman of the National Consensus Commission, and the NCC members.
The more than 30-hour blockade at the busiest Shahbagh crossing in the capital begun at about 11:00am on July 31, which halted vehicular movement, causing sufferings to the city people amid rain.
Another group claiming themselves as ‘July warriors and injured’ at about 6:30pm on Friday chased the blockaders, lifted barricades and vandalised the temporary stage, saying that the group created sufferings for the city people, misusing the name of ‘July warriors’.
Due to the blockade by about a hundred protesters, hospital goers in the area also suffered as two of the country’s largest hospitals, Bangladesh Medical University and BIRDEM, are situated at Shahbagh.
Kamrul Hasan, co-spokesperson of July Joddha Sangsad (July warriors’ platform), claimed that the protesters were continuing the blockade programme peacefully but a group of people attacked them and vandalised the stage.
From the group that chased the protesters, Abu Bakar Siddique, a July uprising injured, said, ‘The interim government was working to make the July Charter and the July Declaration. Those are about to be announced by August 5.’
Dhaka Metropolitan Police deputy commissioner for Ramna division Masud Alam said that they tried to persuade the protesters several times to lift the blockade.
Police tried to refrain of the two groups so that they would not lock into a clash, added Masud.
In the afternoon, police took away the police barricades, those the protesters used to block each side of the crossing.