People, mainly students, in their thousands on Thursday continued sitting in at Shahbagh where they have held protests since Tuesday at the imprisonment of Jamaat leader Abdul Quader Molla on war crimes charges and demanded death penalty for Quader Molla and other war criminals.
Students of different schools and colleges on Thursday joined in as the protests passed the third day without any break. Protest spilled over to other areas of the country, with people holding sit-ins, rallies and candlelight vigils.
Protesters in Dhaka have planned a grand rally at Shahbagh at 3:00pm today. They said that no political activists would be allowed to give speeches at the rally.
Protesters in the capital had shouted ‘Tui razakar, tui razakar [you are collaborators]’ clapping all day long. Some shouted ‘Let weapons of ’71 roar again,’ and ‘We only want razakars to be hanged.’ Cultural activists sang songs and recited poems.
Bloggers and online activists began the protests in the Shahbagh crossing, which protesters are now calling Shahbagh Square, on Tuesday afternoon as International Crimes Tribunal 2 jailing Quader Molla, Jamaat’s assistant secretary general, for life on war crimes charges, including rape and mass murder, had disappointed people.
Ministers, politicians, freedom fighters, university teachers, cultural activists and students flocked to the place spontaneously where protesters put up banners and festoons seeking the
death penalty for the Jamaat leader.
On Thursday, the protesters stopped at least two ranking Awami League leaders — the posts and telecommunications minister, Sahara Khatun, and the party’s joint general secretary Mahbubul Alam Hanif — from giving speech in the place.
The demonstrators threw stones and water bottles at Mahbubul Alam Hanif when he visited the place in the evening.
The police, meanwhile, blocked road stretches to Shahbagh from Kantaban, Matsya Bhaban and the Ruposhi Bangla Hotel causing a huge traffic congestion, straining life in neighbouring areas.
Shahbagh police inspector Serajul Islam said that the protests were peaceful and they had blocked the road to ensure security.
The protesters said in the evening that they would stay in the place overnight pushing for their demand. They all vowed that they would not leave the place until their demand for Quader Molla’s death penalty was met.
The Shabagh crossing and areas between Kantaban to the Children’s Park and between the Ruposhi Bangla Hotel to the fine arts faculty in Dhaka University teemed with people as the day rolled on, with Ekushey book fair visitors joining in the evening.
The protesters sported national flag, brought out processions, carried banners and festoons, screened films on the independence war, painted the road stretches, staged street plays and shouted slogans against the International Crimes Tribunal 2 verdict.
The protesters said that the tribunal was lenient in the conviction of Quader Molla compared with the crimes he had committed during the war.
They questioned Quader Molla being jailed for life when five of six allegations of murdering several hundred people against him were proved.
Expressing solidarity with protesters, the science and technology minister, Yeafesh Osman, said that the new generation would help to rid Bangladesh of war criminals.
The prime minister’s energy adviser Tawfiq-e-Elahi expressed solidarity with the protests saying that he, as a freedom fighter, also wanted the highest punishment of war criminals.
Poet Syed Shamsul Haq said that he was seeing a new Bangladesh in the movement led by the young people. ‘No one can hold back the youths from achieving their goal.’
Communist Party of Bangladesh presidium member Haider Akbar Khan Rano, a number of teachers of Dhaka, Jagannath and Jahangirnagar universities and sports personalities also expressed solidarity with the protesters.
Students of Dhaka University, Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology, Jahangirnagar University, Jagannath University, Dhaka Medical College, Eden Girls’ College, Dhaka City College, Ideal College, East West University, University of Liberal Arts and other educational institutions started flocking to the place in the morning and continued doing so all day long.
Many students said that they did not attend classes to join the protests. Some East West University students alleged that some Islami Chhtrra Shibir activists had chased them on the Badda Bridge at Rampura when they were crossing the area shouting slogans.
Natasha, an applied statistics student of Dhaka University, told New Age that she did not attend classes to join the protests. ‘I have never joined rallies or processions until today. But when I heard of the movement, I decided to be part of it.’
Such young people, who joined any rallies for the first time in their life on the day, raised their voice for the death penalty of war criminals.
Sangiskritik Union activists along with others sang patriotic songs to cheer up protesters.
Sammilita Krira Paribar members also joined the protests. Arif Khan Joy, a former captain of the national football team, said that people had to wait for more than four decades for the judgement but it failed to reflect people’s expectations.
Cultural activist Rokeya Prachi said, ‘We want death penalty for all razakars.’
The protesters also put up an effigy of Quader Molla in the middle of the gathering and effigies of other war crimes suspects around the place.
A group of protesters teamed up as Pratyasha Foundation burnt Quader Molla in effigy in the afternoon. Another group threw shoes at the effigies of war crimes suspects several times.
Blogger Baki Billah, in the evening, said, ‘We reject the tribunal verdict. We will not leave the streets until Quader Molla is convicted to death penalty.’
Others who spoke there said that the Quader Molla verdict had ‘humiliated’ the nation and disappointed people seeking justice against mass murder and rape by war criminals. It also belittled the people who laid down their lives for the country.
Fine arts students put on display caricatures of war crimes suspects along the road stretch from the fine arts faculty to the Shahbagh crossing.
A group of freedom fighters of Mukitjodha Sangsad Central Command Council carrying the national flags, joined the protesters.
The Dhaka University Film Society screened several films such on the war of independence on a big screen the organisation set up in the place.
Cultural organisation Tirandaj staged street plays.
Amiruddin Ahmed, a freedom fighter who joined the protests, said that he was happy about the protests. ‘Our flag is safe at the hands of our children.’
Some people said that they had travelled from Mymensingh, Narayanganj, Gazipur, Comilla and others neighbouring districts to join the protests.
Some of the protesters who opened a page on the social networking site Facebook on the movement said that many young people in outlying districts had started for Dhaka to join the protests.
The protests spilled over to other parts of the country such as Chittagong, Sylhet, Pabna, Faridpur and Khagrachari, with sit-ins and rallies demanding death penalty for Quader Molla.
People of Chittagong rallied in front of the press club in the city for the second day.
The New Age correspondent in Faridpur said that leaders and activists of different political and social organisations joined the protests shouting slogans against collaborators and singing songs.
Awami Prajanma League held a human chain in front of press club.
The correspondent in Khagrachari said that people from all walks of life formed a human in the district town against the Quader Molla verdict.
The correspondent in Pabna said that freedom fighters had rallied there demanding the death penalty for all war criminals. They also brought out a protest procession in the town.
Courtesy of New Age
