Dhaka - Bangladeshi police on Wednesday foiled attempts by several organisations to encircle and cut off the Pakistan’s high commission in Dhaka, reported bdnews24.com.
Hundreds joined the processions that tried to move into Gulshan-2 on Wednesday morning to lay siege to the high commission.
The protest was organised by Bangladesh Workers Party, Sramik League, Bangladesh Chhatra League along with other political and social organisations.
The protesters after being stopped from entering the diplomatic zone held a meeting at the intersection in Gulshan.
Workers Party activists gathered at Notun Bazar intersection and held a rally outside Vatara Police Station where they torched the Pakistani flag.
MP Rahmat Ullah, president of metropolitan Awami League’s north unit, who spoke at the Gulshan-2 gathering, said: “The killings in Bangladesh are part of a conspiracy by Pakistan and Israel’s Mossad.”
Other speakers said Pakistan has also ‘challenged Bangladesh’s sovereignty’ by supporting the cause of the 1971 war criminals, some of whom have been executed recently.
HASINA AGAINST SEVERING TIES WITH PAKISTAN
Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Wednesday said Bangladesh will not sever its diplomatic ties with Pakistan.
“I never believe in snapping all sorts of relations with another country,” she said in response to a query regarding the recent unwarranted interfere of Pakistan in the internal matters of Bangladesh.
The prime minister was addressing a press conference at her official residence Ganobahban arranged to inform the media about the outcomes of her recent three visits to Bulgaria, Japan and Saudi Arabia.
"Pakistan is telling what they want to say. But with this it becomes clear that these people never want Bangladesh, they are the agents of Pakistan," she said, adding that the diplomatic relation is there and it will remain.
FOURTH MILITANT SHOT DEAD
AFP adds: Bangladesh police shot dead an Islamist militant Wednesday, the fourth killed since a crackdown was launched against suspected jihadists blamed for a wave of gruesome killings, an officer said.
The 25-year-old militant was killed during a gun battle with police in northern Bogra district, where he was suspected of bombing a minority Shiite shrine last year, the officer said.
Kawser, known by one name, was the fourth member of the local Jamayetul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) killed, with three "high-ranking" members of the Islamist militant group shot dead Tuesday during raids in Dhaka and a northwestern district.
The banned group is blamed for dozens of murders of religious minorities and secular and liberal activists.
"Kawser was shot during a gunfight between police and JMB militants under a bridge at Shibganj in Bogra," Bogra district police spokesman Gaziur Rahman told AFP. "He died on the way to hospital."
"He directly took part in the bomb attack on a Shiite mosque in Bogra last October and we believe he also took part in other killing missions," Rahman said.
Separately, police on Wednesday arrested a former student member of Islamist party Jamaat-e-Islami over Sunday's murder of Mahmuda Begum, the wife of an anti-terrorism police officer.
Abu Nasar Bunnu, 40, was "being questioned by police" after he was detained on the outskirts of the southeastern city of Chittagong, police commissioner Iqbal Bahar told AFP.
Bangladeshi authorities have come under mounting international pressure to end the string of attacks, which have left nearly 50 people dead in the last three years.
In addition to the murder of the police officer's wife, in the past four days an elderly Hindu priest and a Christian grocer have been killed.
Officially secular, but with a majority Sunni Muslim population, Bangladesh has witnessed a surge of similar murders in recent weeks, including those of two gay rights activists.
Authorities have blamed homegrown Islamists for the attacks, rejecting claims of responsibility from the Islamic State (IS) group and a South Asian branch of Al-Qaeda.
Experts say a ban on Bangladesh's largest Islamist party Jamaat-e-Islami following a protracted political crisis has pushed many towards extremism.