Members of the cultural organization Udichi were barred from holding a national anthem singing event and beaten up in Bogra by the jihadists of Islami Chhatra Shibir and Inqilab Moncho on Wednesday.

Independent TV carried a news story on its website but was forced to remove it and apologize after Inqilab Moncho threatened to stage a human chain in front of the channel’s office the next day.

The channel authorities complied accordingly.

Social media activists have found the names of some of the attackers. They are Nur Mohammad Zubair, joint member secretary of Bogra district Student Against Discrimination (SAD) platform, Rabbi Hasan Mandal, joint convener of SAD’s Bogra unit, Sifat Ullah, SAD organizer in Bogra, and Matiur Rahman Pintu of the National Citizen Party (NCP) in Bogra.

Since August, Shibir and Inqilab Moncho have conducted hundreds of terror attacks on the members and supporters of the Awami League, dozens of media outlets, and symbols of the 1971 War of Independence and enjoyed impunity.

Nearly a week ago, on May 9, Jamaat-Shibir members chanted slogans in favour of the 1971 razakars, who were mainly from the Jamaat, during a demonstration in Shahbagh to demand a ban on the Awami League. At the same event, when some students started singing the national anthem, the Shibir section among the protesters shouted at them, asking them to stop.

Since then, many organizations and individuals, including students, have condemned Jamaat-Shibir. Even information adviser Mahfuj Alam, a former Shibir leader, slammed the war criminal party.

Bangladesh Udichi Shilpigoshthi is the largest anti-communal, progressive, and voluntary organization in Bangladesh. It played a significant role in the 1971 Liberation War and all the democratic and cultural movements of Bangladesh.

Udichi was established on October 29, 1968, by the great revolutionary artists and cultural activists, including Satyen Sen and Ronesh Dasgupta.

Islamists linked to Jamaat, Hefazat, Khelafat Majlish, Islami Andolan Bangladesh, and militant groups like Hizb ut-Tahrir, JMB, and HuJI-B, who follow the ideologies of al-Qaeda and the Taliban, consider Udichi and its activities anti-Islam.

JMB and HuJI conducted dozens of attacks on offices and events of Udichi, Shatadal Shilpi Gosthi, Chhayanaut, and many others from 1998 to date.

On March 6, 1999, Mufti Hannan of HuJI-B led a bomb attack on an event of Udichi in Jessore, killing ten and injuring over 150 others. The brutal massacre still haunts the memories of survivors, victims’ families, artists, and cultural activists as they await justice. But justice has yet to come.

The JMB’s suicide bomb squad launched an attack on Udichi and Shatadal offices in Netrokona in 2005 that killed eight people. JMB operative Asaduzzaman Ponir alias Asad, 37, from Mymensingh, was hanged to death on July 15, 2021.