Police yesterday morning prevented fans from holding their scheduled human-chain programme demanding "symbolic punishment" only for ex-Bangladesh cricket captain Mohammad Ashraful who last week confessed to his role in match fixing.
Security has been beefed up around the Mirpur Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium here after the Ashraful fans were chased away, reports Xinhua.
Mohammad Ashraful
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Official sources said the fans who interacted through social media like Facebook started to flock to the stadium area to join the programme in small processions afteru00a010:00 am.
According to witnesses, Ashraful fans, mostly students, gathered on the road in front of the stadium carrying banners and festoons inscribed with slogans beseeching the authorities to “Be kind to Ashraful” and “Give Ashraful symbolic punishment”.
A few placards read “Please Forgive Ashraful”, “Don’t break our heart”, and “Ashraful has been framed”. u00a0On receipt of information, police rushed to the scene and reportedly used baton charge to disperse the fans from the road before they could consolidate their position and chased them away.
Jashim Uddin, assistant deputy commissioner of police in downtown Mirpur, told Xinhua that they (Ashraful fans) tried to hold the human-chain programme without permission from the relevant authorities. “We can’t allow them to hold the programme since they had no permission for the programme.”
He, however, denied the allegation that police resorted to baton charge to disperse the crowd. u00a0“They just left the scene as we asked them.”u00a0
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