Unauthorised Jamat-e-Islami Women’s Workshop Sparks Chaos at Chuadanga Mosque

A high-stakes confrontation erupted in Chuadanga’s Damurhuda sub-district on Saturday, 11 July, after a political training workshop organised by women activists of Jamaat-e-Islami inside a local landmark model mosque triggered severe public resentment. The situation escalated rapidly into physical altercations before law enforcement and administrative officers rushed to the scene to restore public order.

The multi-storey Islamic complex, built under a government initiative to establish standardised model mosques, became a flashpoint when dozens of battery-operated easy-bikes and microbuses began arriving at the venue after 10:00 am. Hundreds of women belonging to Jamaat-e-Islami assembled in the upper tiers of the building. Local worshippers discovered the sprawling political assembly when they entered the complex to offer their midday Zuhr prayers.

Recognising the political nature of the workshop, local residents alongside activists from the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) immediately alerted the police and the sub-district administration. Tensions reached boiling point within minutes. Outraged merchants from the adjacent marketplace moved en masse to the venue, shutting the primary iron gates of the complex and locking the participants inside. A chaotic scuffle subsequently broke out at the entrance between opposing factions.

Police personnel managed to bring the volatile situation under control, opening the gates to safely evacuate the cornered political workers from the premises. Disclosing the administrative lapses, Sheikh Mohammad Mezbah Uddin, the Officer-in-Charge of Damurhuda Model Police Station, confirmed that law enforcement had received no prior security notification regarding the event, adding that it remained unclear whether the civil administration had been briefed.

The investigation into the security breach revealed a illicit financial arrangement. The mosque caretaker, Mohammad Shahgahan, admitted to leasing out the sacred public space for a single day in exchange for a cash payment of 3,000 taka. He conceded that he had bypassed all official channels and failed to inform his superiors before approving the booking. Despite the public backlash, Mohammad Abed Ud Doula Riton, the general secretary of the Damurhuda sub-district branch of Jamaat-e-Islami, defended the day-long event as a standard internal training programme for their female wing.

Conversely, Mohammad Rafikul Hasan Tonu, the general secretary of the rival Damurhuda sub-district BNP, stated that between 300 and 400 political activists were utilising the state-funded religious institution for partisan coordination. He asserted that the community naturally reacted when public state property was weaponised for political maneuvering.

The sub-district executive officer (UNO), Lovely Yasmin, who serves as the official president of the model mosque’s governing committee, expressed deep dissatisfaction over the incident. She questioned how such a mass political gathering could be organised inside a state-supervised religious institution without her explicit permission or knowledge. Yasmin has issued an official directive demanding a formal written explanation from the caretaker, confirming that while the area remains under close surveillance, normal operations have resumed.