Police on Friday night charged protesters with attempted murder charges after they were detained during the protest to reinstate Lady Justice at the Supreme Court premise. Officer-in-Charge (OC) of Shahbagh police station, Abul Hossain told the Dhaka Tribune that the case, filed on Friday night, against four people including Chhatra Union’s General Secretary Liton Nandi, Chhatra Union’s Dhaka College unit’s president Morshed Halim and Chhatra Union’s activist Joy and Udichi’s Arifur. Sub-Inspector Md Mofakhkharul Islam, who filed the case, claimed that stick-wielding protesters hurled stones at on-duty policemen with the intention to kill them. “They obstructed police work and attacked with the intention to kill the policemen,” he wrote in his complaint. Four policemen were injured in the attack, he added. [caption id="attachment_65742" align="aligncenter" width="850"]Police push Chhatra Union leader Liton Nandi into a van on Friday during a protest[/caption] Meanwhile, a Dhaka court sent the arrested four to jail. Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Satyabrata Shikder has set Sunday to hear on their bail petition. Members of various student fronts and cultural organisations held protests on the Dhaka University campus on Friday, hours after the statue of Lady Justice had been removed. They demanded the statue be reinstated. Police obstructed their march towards High Court’s Mazar Gate. When protesters broke through the barricade, police fired tear gas and used water cannon to disperse them. Four people, including Liton and Arifur, were detained from the spot. OC Abul said the detainees had been shown arrested in the case and the court sent them to jail on Saturday.</s>The controversial statue of Lady Justice that stood in the compound of Bangladesh’s Supreme Court in Dhaka was removed on early Friday morning, reported Dhaka Tribune. Several radical groups, including the Hefazat-e-Islam, a body of madrassa teachers and students, the Awami Olama League and the Islami Andolan Bangladesh had been campaigning for months against the sculpture for being “anti-Islamic”.

The statue depicts the Greek goddess of justice, Themis, holding a sword in one hand and the scales of justice in the other, but wearing a sari. The statue was installed outside the court in December 2016. As Muslims oppose idol worship, the statue of Lady Justice was considered “anti-Islamic” and protests had erupted in Dhaka demanding its removal.

Around midnight on Thursday, 10 to 12 people were seen taking down the statue. Attorney general Mahbubey Alam said an order to do was passed by Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha. Sinha had asked the statue to be placed somewhere else in the compound, reported Dhaka Tribune. Alam said, “He told us he did not want any untoward incident over the statue in front of the Supreme Court.”

Sculptor Mrinal Haque was also present at the site during the removal to ensure the statue was not damaged. “This is a Bangali woman, wearing a saree,” he told the daily. “There is nothing Greek about it. This is nothing but a symbol of justice.” However, Haque added that he did not know if the statue would be placed somewhere else in the compound.

Meanwhile, a crowd of protestors gathered outside the locked gate of the court’s compound to demonstrate against the statue’s removal. They also announced a protest march on Friday at 11 am in front of the Dhaka University.

Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has, in the past, criticised the instalment. On April 18, she had asked why the statue of a Greek goddess was set up in Bangladesh. “The Greeks had a certain type of costume, but here a statue has been built and it is wearing a sari,” she was quoted as saying by the Daily Star. “It is a funny incident. I don’t know why such an incident happened.”

Also see: In Bangladesh, a movement against a statue of Lady Justice reveals the dangers of rising Islamism</s>Officials said a statue of Lady Justice installed at the Bangladesh’s Supreme Court in Dhaka in 2016 was removed on Friday after radical Islamists demanded its destruction.

Attorney General Mahbubey Alam told local media that the sculpture had been removed on the recommendation of senior jurists to avert an “untoward situation.”

“It may be relocated to a museum nearby the Supreme Court,” he said.

Hard-line Islamists said that the statue, a blindfolded woman in a sari holding scales and a sword in her hands, is an idol, which is prohibited in Islam.

Since its installation in December 2016, thousands have turned out at demonstrations to demand its removal or destruction as well as that of similar artworks across the country.

Television footage on Friday showed sculptor Mrinal Haque overseeing a group of workers hammering at the base of the statue in the middle of the night.

“I made it, now I have been forced to remove it.

“I’ve come to ensure that the sculpture is not damaged during removal,” Haque said.

The statue represents the Roman goddess Iustitia and the Greek goddess Themis.

Bangladesh has a secular constitution based on British common law, but radical Islamic groups have long campaigned for the introduction of strict Islamic law, or sharia.

More than 90 per cent of Bangladesh’s 160 million inhabitants identify as Muslim.

Activists of left-leaning student organisations clashed with police as the lawmen prevented a protest march towards the Supreme Court premises to demand the reinstallation of the justice statue.

Police fired tear gas and water canon to disperse the demonstration of more than 100 activists on Dhaka University campus.

Four people were arrested as they were trying to break through the security barricade at the court premises, officer Maruf Sarder said.

Samajtantrik Chhatra Front (Socialist Student Front), a left-wing student organisation, has announced protest at all educational institutions across Bangladesh for Saturday.</s>NEW DELHI (AP) - A Lady Justice statue was removed from Bangladesh's Supreme Court premises under tight security overnight after Islamist hardliners pressed for its removal for months, the sculptor said Friday.

The statue of a woman holding a scale and sword in her hands was installed in December outside the court building. The sculpture is wrapped in a sari, a Bangladeshi revision of the usual representation, the Greek goddess Themis blindfolded and clad in a gown.

Some people protested late Thursday night on an adjacent street in front of the court premises when workers removed the sculpture. The statue was covered and was kept nearby afterward.

Sculptor Mrinal Haque said the removal was too shocking for him. "I am feeling terrible," Haque told The Associated Press. "This is injustice, this is not fair. My mother has died and I can easily compare my present feeling with that loss."

Islamists oppose idol worship and consider the Lady Justice statue anti-Islamic, and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said in a recent meeting with Islamist group Hefazat-e-Islam that she did not like the statue.

Hefazat-e-Islam supporters have protested in front of the main mosque in Dhaka several times after the statue was erected. The group, which has a network of students from thousands of Islamic schools across the country, had threatened to launch a mass movement if the government failed to remove the statue.

A dozen activists belonging to a leftist student group marched through a street on the Dhaka University campus Friday but police foiled them by raising barbed-wire fence and firing tear gas. It was not immediately clear if anybody was injured.

In 2008, protests led to the removal of a statue of a Bangladeshi mystic poet at a road crossing near Dhaka's airport.

The country of 160 million people is ruled by secular laws, but radical Islam has been rising.

In recent years dozens of atheists, liberal writers, bloggers and publishers and members of minority communities and foreigners have been targeted and killed.</s>NEW DELHI (CBSNewYork/AP) – A statue of Lady Justice erected outside the supreme court in Bangladesh last December has been taken down.

The statue depicted a woman holding a scale in one hand and sword in the other. The figure is wrapped in a sari.

Students from Islamic schools around Bangladesh threatened to launch a mass movement if the government didn’t remove the statue.

“This is injustice, this is not fair,” Haque told the Associated Press. “My mother has died and I can easily compare my present feeling with that loss.”

About a dozen students from a leftist group marched at Dhaka University to protest the statue’s removal.

Bangladesh has 160 million people and a secular government, though the influence of radical Islam has been increasing.

In 2008, protests led to the removal of a statue of a Bangladeshi poet near the airport.

Dozens of atheists, liberal writers, bloggers, foreigners and more have been targeted and killed in Bangladesh in recent years, the Associated Press reported.</s>The statue of Lady Justice was removed from the premises of the Supreme Court early Friday, on the demand of some Islamist organisations that called it 'un-Islamic'.

Attorney General Mahbubey Alam said that Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha had ordered the statue removed and placed elsewhere on Thursday afternoon.

Senior lawyers were present when the Chief Justice made the call.

Earlier, terming the statue "un-Islamic", Hefajat-e Islam, Awami Olama League and some other Islamist organisations demanded its immediate removal, reports the Daily Star.

On April 21, Islami Andolan Bangladesh demanded that the government remove the statue before Ramadan.

Meanwhile, protesters have announced a march for 11a.m. that will begin from in front of Raju Bhashkorjo in Dhaka University and march to the Supreme Court to oppose the move.</s>A statue of Lady Justice has been removed from the supreme court building in the Bangladeshi capital after objections from Islamist groups.

The sculpture, by the local artist Mrinal Haque, was installed in front of the court in December, and depicts a woman in a sari clutching a sword and scales, similar to the traditional depiction of the Greek goddess Themis.

At first hardline Islamist groups, and later the country’s religious establishment, had been calling for the statue’s removal, on the grounds that its presence was an example of idol worship, forbidden in Islam.

A removal team arrived at the court at midnight on Thursday and began hammering at the base of the statue, using a crane to load it on to a pickup truck. The five-hour process attracted protesters and news networks, which broadcast the event live.

Haque oversaw the removal to ensure no damage was done to the statue, telling local media it was a “slap in the face of the progressive people in this country”.

“This is a Bengali woman, wearing a sari. There is nothing Greek about it. This is nothing but a symbol of justice,” he said.

He told the Associated Press he felt terrible. “This is injustice. This is not fair. My mother has died and I can easily compare my present feeling with that loss.”

The removal of the statue grew more likely last month after Bangladesh’s prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, told a gathering of clerics she was unsure why the statue had been installed.

“Why would the statue of Greek Themis be set up in Bangladesh?” she asked in a speech. “The Greeks had a certain type of costume, but here a statue has been built and it is wearing a sari … I don’t know why such an incident happened.”

The Bangladeshi attorney general, Mahbubey Alam, told the Bangla Tribune the country’s chief justice had ordered that the statue be removed and placed elsewhere. 



“He told us he did not want any untoward incident over the statue in front of the supreme court. It should be removed and placed in some other location so that there are no questions raised about it,” he said.

“We also advised him that it would be prudent to remove the statue from in front of the court.”

Around a dozen student activists held a march at Dhaka University on Friday to protest against the statue’s removal, but were blocked by police who laid barbed-wire fences and fired teargas.

The campaign to remove the statue was started by Hefazat-e-Islam, a conservative religious movement that runs a large network of Islamic schools across Bangladesh. It had threatened to launch a mass movement if the statue remained in place.

Bangladesh has a secular government led by Hasina, but the political influence of Islamic movements is growing, and the decision was seen as a concession to religious voters before national elections in 2019.



Anisuzzaman, a participant in the country’s 1971 liberation war and a professor of Bengali literature, said the statue’s removal was “a sad development and we deplore it”.

“We see this as the government bowing down to the pressure of those who have used religion for political ends,” said Anisuzzaman, who like many south Asians uses only one name.</s>Authorities in Bangladesh reinstalled a Lady Justice statue near the country’s Supreme Court, two days after its removal following complaints by Islamist hard-liners.

 

 Sculptor Mrinal Haque said Sunday workers put the statue back in place a few hundred meters (yards) from its original location. 

 

 Haque, who took care of the reinstallation work overnight, said he was shocked at the statue’s removal Thursday night. He said it would be less visible in its new place. 

 

 Security was tight, and officials did not allow anybody inside the court area when the statue was re-erected. A dozen people nearby chanted anti-government slogans and demanded the work be stopped.

Islamists vow new protests

 

 The removal was to appease hard-liners who said the statue was erected last year in front of a ground used for prayers during two Islamic festivals. But it also sparked criticism and protests among liberals, cultural groups and left-wing activists.

 

 Many have accused Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina of siding with the Islamists who are traditionally close to her rival Khaleda Zia, the opposition leader and a former prime minister. Hefazat-e-Islam, a platform of the Islamists, had welcomed the removal and vowed to wage new protests to press for removal of other sculptures on university campuses and intersections across the country.



 

 The statue of a woman holding a scale and sword in her hands was installed in December. The statue is wrapped in a sari, a Bangladeshi revision of the usual representation, the Greek goddess Themis blindfolded and clad in a gown. Islamists oppose idol worship and consider the Lady Justice statue anti-Islamic.

A blow to hard-liners

 

 The reinstallation of the statue can be seen as a blow to the hard-liners who are trying to get some political mileage ahead of next general elections expected to be held in December next year. 

 

 Hefazat-e-Islam supporters have protested in front of the main mosque in Dhaka several times after the statue was erected. The group, which has a network of students from thousands of Islamic schools across the country, had threatened to launch a mass movement if the government failed to remove the statue.

 

 In 2008, protests led to the removal of a statue of a Bangladeshi mystic poet at a road crossing near Dhaka’s airport.

 

 The country of 160 million people is ruled by secular laws, but radical Islam has been rising.

 

 In recent years dozens of atheists, liberal writers, bloggers and publishers and members of minority communities and foreigners have been targeted and killed.</s>Statue of a sari-clad woman holding scales taken down amid tight security after months of protests by religious groups.

A statue depicting a goddess of justice has been removed from outside the Supreme Court in Bangladesh's capital, Dhaka, following months of protests by conservative religious groups who had deemed it "un-Islamic".

The statue of the blindfolded, sari-clad woman holding scales - a Bangladeshi version of the Greek goddess of justice, Themis - was taken down amid tight security in the early hours of Friday.

There was no official comment from the court or the government, but attorney General Mahbube Alam said the statue's removal was "a decision of the court".

He added that the statue had been moved to another place within the court premises.

Sculptor Mrinal Haque choked back tears as he oversaw the statue's removal, saying it felt like "clearing a dead body".

"Even my mother's death did not make me so grief-stricken," Haque told the AFP news agency.

Later on Friday, hundreds of students and left-wing activists protested against the statue's removal outside the court premise and on the Dhaka University.

"It is a betrayal of the people. The depressing thing is that the government is using it as a political tool," activist Imran Sarkar told AFP.

Police fired rubber bullets, tear gas and water cannons to disperse the protesters.

Hefazat-e-Islam and Bangladesh Olama League were among the groups who had been calling for the statue's removal since its installation in December 2016, with thousands turning at demonstrations in front of the main mosque in the capital, Dhaka.

Leaders of Hefazat-e-Islam met Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who leads the secular Awami League party, on April 11 demanding the removal of the statue.

"I don't like it myself," Hasina said at the time, calling the statue "ridiculous".

"It's being called a Greek statue, but how did a Greek statue get here?"

Haque rejected that claim, saying: "It is a piece of sculpture of a Bengali woman wearing a traditional sari, blouse, petticoat and bangles."

Azizul Hoque Islamabadi, a spokesman for Hefazat-e-Islam, thanked Hasina on Friday, saying she "has prevented the country from a destabilising and confrontational situation".

Bangladesh, ruled by secular laws, has experienced increasing tensions between conservative religious groups and secularists in recent years.

Dozens of atheists, liberal writers, bloggers and publishers and members of minority communities and foreigners have been targeted and killed.

In 2008, protests led to the removal of a statue of a Bangladeshi mystic poet at a road crossing near Dhaka's airport.
Police announce charges of attempted murder against 150 protestors from Dhaka University over a protest to restore a statue of Lady Justice outside the Supreme Court. Protestors and police clashed near the High Court, with police firing tear gas and water cannons after protestors breached a barricade. Police claim protestors wielded sticks and stones in a bid to murder on-duty officers.