Bangladesh: Hizb-ut-Tahrir’s ‘March for Khilafat’ turns violent as police disperse protesters with tear gas

Police in Bangladesh used tear gas and sound grenades on Friday to break up a protest by hundreds of members of the banned extremist group Hizb-ut-Tahrir, who were demanding the replacement of the country’s secular democracy with an Islamic caliphate.

The activists, chanting “Khilafat, Khilafat,” gathered for a ‘March for Khilafat’ near the Baitul Mukarram Mosque after Friday prayers, ignoring police barricades. Witnesses reported that officers struggled to control the crowd and resorted to tear gas and sound grenades to disperse them.

The Dhaka Metropolitan Police issued a warning on Thursday, prohibiting banned organizations from holding public meetings or rallies. Hizb-ut-Tahrir, outlawed in Bangladesh since October 2009 for threatening national security, has repeatedly organised protests and marches in violation of government restrictions on public gatherings.

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The London-based Hizb-ut-Tahrir seeks to unite Muslims in a pan-Islamic state but says its means are peaceful.

The Muslim-majority country of 170 million people is one of the world’s largest and poorest democracies.

It has been grappling with political unrest since an interim government, led by Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus, took over following protests that drove then-Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina out of the country.

With inputs from agencies