On the morning of 12th January, Friday after the Jumma Prayer, Modhukhali woke up to the eruption of mass protests, largely led by cadets and members of the nefarious Hefazat-E-Islami, one of the most debated Islam-centric political parties in Bangladesh.
Their protests are largely the result of the blasphemous content produced by Mr. Suranjoy Sarkar for writing articles for his blog and organization called ‘Minorities in Bangladesh’. It is worth mentioning that Mr. Sarkar is the sub-editor of the organization called Minorities in Bangladesh, who works for minorities rights all over the world.
In the said organization and his personal blog, Mr. Sarker was accused of representing Islam and its constituencies in a rude and offensive manner. , However, the mass protests orchestrated by the Herfazat-E-Islami members were of a much more different ilk. On one hand, it was a true representation of the mentality of the Bangladesh society, not to mention a reminder of the austere measures that are at hand, should anyone is deemed to have either produced or handled blasphemous content in some way.
And on the other hand it was vicious and vociferous, certainly, the way Hefazat went about it as almost every wall, nook, cranny, lamp post, bus stand in Modhukhali was populated with posters of Mr. Sarker. The posters although artful, were rather crude as they referred to Mr. Sarker as a ‘Kafir’, ‘Munafik’ and a ‘Malaun’ amongst other appalling names. Some of the posters depicted Mr. Sarker’s head around a noose, demanding that he is hanged ‘for his crimes’.
Our correspondent was able to capture most of what was a very chaotic scene in Modhukhali on the day, as postering coincided with a protest rally of sorts. The people who led the rally were heard shouting “Sarker should be hanged” in unison.
Due to the ensuing chaos, our correspondent was unable to speak to any of the Hefazat members who orchestrated this demonstration. He was, however, able to capture images of just some of the many posters that were plastered across Modhukhali, in protest of Mr. Sarker’s antics.
