The prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, on Monday called upon the protesters at Shahbagh not to continue their protests round the clock blocking the entrances to two big hospitals at the intersection.
Presiding over the weekly cabinet meeting, she, however, expressed her solidarity
with the Shahbagh protests, demanding maximum punishment for the perpetrators of crimes against humanity committed during the war of independence in 1971.
Hasina said that the verdict sentencing Jamaat leader Abdul Quader Molla to life term in jail united the people from all walks of life as they took to the street out of patriotism on the war crimes trial issue, a minister told New Age.
Hasina asked the agencies concerned to convey the message to the protesters, according to ministers.
Protests at Shahbagh passed the seventh consecutive day on Monday with people taking a fresh vow not to leave the streets until all war criminals, including Jamaat’s assistant secretary general Abdul Quader Molla, were sentenced to death.
The prime minister requested the protesters to continue their programme for a specific time from the afternoon to the evening in a manner so that the traffic movement was not affected and the patients could easily enter the Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University or the BIRDEM hospital located near the Shahbagh intersection, a minister said.
Hasina told the cabinet that the Awami League government was happy with the youths demanding maximum punishment of the accused of war crimes and chanting ‘Joy Bangla’ slogan.
A number of ministers and state ministers took part in the discussion on the Shahbagh protests in the meeting at the cabinet division.
The International Crimes Tribunal-2 on February 5, 2013 sentenced Quader to life term in jail on charges of crimes against humanity including mass killing and rape.
The verdict triggered protests by ordinary people from all walks of life in Dhaka and elsewhere, demanding the capital punishment of all the war criminals.
Courtesy of New Age
