Nurul Haque Nur, president of Gono Odhikar Parishad and state minister for expatriates’ welfare and overseas employment, warned Jamaat-Shibir after alleging an attack on his party’s peaceful protest rally in Kushtia. In a Facebook post on Saturday night, August 15, he said the “throat-slitting” Jamaat-Shibir had returned to its true form and accused Jamaat workers of carrying out repeated attacks with machetes, hockey sticks, knives and cleavers.

Nur said more than 50 leaders and activists were seriously injured, including Abdul Khalek, general secretary of Kushtia district Gono Odhikar Parishad, and Sohan Ahmed, president of the Kushtia Government College unit of Chhatra Odhikar Parishad. He condemned and protested what he described as a terrorist attack by Jamaat-Shibir.

In his post, Nur said Jamaat-Shibir had remained underground for the past decade and a half and warned that further excesses would result in arrangements to keep them underground for life. Party spokesperson Abu Hanif also alleged that activists of lawmaker Amir Hamza attacked several Gono Odhikar Parishad leaders and activists in Kushtia. No immediate response was available from Jamaat or Amir Hamza's side.