Rally calls for 3-minute silence across country today
Tender voice mingled with the mass protests at Shahbagh Square as schoolchildren and college students joined the rally in their thousands on Monday to express their solidarity with the demand for capital punishment for the war criminals of 1971.
The seventh day of the unrelenting protest passed with a request from the demonstrators to the people across the country to observe a three-minute silence from 4:00pm today to press home their demand for death penalty to Jamaat-e-Islami leader Abdul Quader Molla and all other war criminals.
Apart from the schoolchildren and college students, heroes of the 1952 language movement turned up at the square to express their solidarity with the popular protests spearheaded by youths.
The unprecedented protests have spread to other parts of the country, including Chittagong, Rajshahi, Barisal, Rangpur, Mymensingh, Sherpur, Kishoreganj, Sylhet, Chandpur, Brahmanbaria, Bandarban, Dinajpur, Moulvibazar, Sunamganj, Comilla, Satkhira, Khulna, Kushtia, Gazipur and Bogra.
A large number of schoolchildren left their classes and thronged the Shahbagh Square to raise their tender voice. Many came to the protest venue in small and large processions in school uniform and some with their teachers and parents.
Students of Viqarunnisa Noon School and
College, Notre Dame College, Holy Cross School and College, University Laboratory School and College, Udayan School, Wills Little Flower School, Dhanmondi Government Boys High School, Bir Shreshtha Munshi Abdur Rauf Rifles College and Dhaka Commerce College, Siddheswari Girls High School, Dania College and other institutions marched to the venue in processions.
Students of Dhaka University, Jahangirnagar University, Jagannath University, Dhaka Medical College, Eden Girls’ College, Dhaka City College, Ideal College, East West University, University of Liberal Arts, Bangladesh Medical College also joined the rally.
They shouted slogans such as ‘Phanshi, phanshi, phanshi chai, Quader Mollar phanshi chai’ (Hang Quader Molla), ‘Ka’ tey Quader Molla –Tui razakar, (‘Ka’ for Quader Molla, you collaborator)’ and ‘Ga’ tey Ghulam Azam, Tui razakar’ (‘Ga’ for Ghulam Azam, you collaborator),’ ‘Apaser rai mani na, manbo na (We won’t accept the verdict of compromise),’ and ‘Apaser parinam Bangla habey Pakistan (Compromise will turn Bangladesh into Pakistan).’
Razwanul Haq, a Notre Dame College student, told New Age that he had skipped classes to join the protests. ‘I have never joined rallies or processions before. But this movement has inspired me to express my solidarity.’
Many young people like him, who joined a protest rally for the first time in their life on the day, raised their voice for death penalty to the war criminals.
Tusher Ahmed, a student of class IV at University Laboratory School and College, came to the venue with his parents wearing a headband reading ‘hang war criminals’.
‘It is the responsibility of the parents to infuse the spirit of the liberation war in their children and make them aware of the glorious sacrifice of the martyrs of the war of independence of 1971,’ said Tusher’s mother Rawshan Ara.
Language movement hero Abdul Matin joined the rally in a wheelchair to express his solidarity, accompanied by another language movement hero Mirza Mazharul Islam, actress Aupee Karim, Rabindra Sangeet singer Mita Haq, Mount Everest climbers MA Muhith and Nishat Majumder and others.
‘The struggle continues … I urge everyone to stay on here until victory is achieved,’ Matin said.
A group of protesters hung a list of organisations linked to Jamaat-e-Islami and Islami Chhatra Shibir and urged all to boycott them.
The protesters carrying national flag, banner and festoons marched in small processions, screened films on the independence war, painted road stretches, staged street plays and sang patriotic songs.
Many people stood in queues to sign a long piece of white cloth extending their support to the protests. A group of young journalists also began a mass signature campaign.
The Dhaka University Film Society screened several films on the war of independence on a big screen the organisation has set up at the square.
A concert was held at Shahbagh at night.
Meanwhile, Lucky Akter, a frontline activist at the Shahbagh protests, who was attacked and injured by Chhatra League activists on the night of Sunday, joined the rally at around 8:00pm Monday.
A lane between BIRDEM Hospital and Matsya Bhaban was opened to traffic in the morning but as the day rolled on, people streaming in blocked it again after 3:00pm, DMP Ramna zone deputy commissioner Nurul Islam Khan said.
Young people also held similar protests at Mirpur 10, Kafrul, Sobhanbagh, Mohammadpur, Shanir Akhdra and Uttara demanding death penalty for Quader Molla.
Protests spilled over to the campuses like Chittagong University, Rajshahi University, Khulna University, Khulna University of Engineering and Technology, Dhaka University of Engineering and Technology in Gazipur and Shaheed Ziaur Rahman Medical College in Bogra.
In Chittagong, protests continued in front of the Chittagong Press Club. In Rajshahi, protests were held at Alupatti crossing and in Barisal at the Ashwini Kumar Town Hall.
Protest rallies were held also at Rangpur, Mymensingh,
Sherpur, Kishoreganj, Sylhet, Chandpur, Brahmanbaria, Bandarban, Dinajpur, Moulvibazar, Sunamganj,
Comilla, Satkhira, Khulna and Kushtia.
Courtesy of New Age
