Protect minorities: Ganajagaran Mancha

The organisers of the youth uprising on Thursday urged the people to stand beside the Hindus and other the minority communities and ensure their security in the wake of attacks on their lives and property by Jamaat-e-Islami supporters.

The ‘Ganajagaran Mancha’ – the plaform which they are demanding death penalty for all convicted war criminals and a ban on Jamaat politics – also urged citizens of all faiths and hues to resist the riotous activities by rowdy Jamaat and its student front Islami Chhatra Shibir.

Imran H Sarker, the spokesperson and an organiser of the Ganajagaran Mancha, came up with the call in his address to a huge rally at Shikha Chirantan premises at the capital’s Suhrawardy Udyan.

They organised the gathering at the historical venue – previously known as Race Course Maidan – where Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman declared the decisive battle against then repressive Pakistani junta the same day 42 years ago.

Sarker said when the entire nation was behind the demand for execution of war crimes convicts, the Jamaat and Shibir men attacked minority communities to disturb the communal harmony.

He promised that the Ganajagaran Mancha would always be by the side of the religious and ethnic minorities.

Sarker called upon the citizens to set up committees all over the country to resist terrorist activities by the marauding Jamaat activists.

“Form terrorism prevention committees at every ward to resist Jamaat and Shibir,” he said. "Our movement is non-violent . . . we do not want to create anarchy ...we will not do anything which will affect the functioning of the state and its people.”

The rally started at 3pm.

Defying the countrywide dawn-to-dusk shutdown called separately by the main opposition BNP and its key ally Jamaat, tens of thousands of people from across the social divide gathered on the premises of Shikha Chirantan or Eternal Flame.

They shouted slogans demanding executions of all convicted war criminals including Abdul Quader Molla who was sentenced to life on Feb 5. The verdict sparked massive street protests seeking execution for Molla, an Assistant Secretary General of Jamaat.

People from across the broad social spectrum have expressed their unity with the new generation of protesters who vowed to hoist the national flag in educational institutions and homes across the country to free the nation from the 'stigma' attached to war crimes.

The protest started by the youngsters and bloggers has already turned into a mass uprising, spread across the country and eventually among the expatriate Bangladeshis.

The demonstrators at Shahbagh intersection, now christened 'Prajanma Chattar', are also demanding a ban on the Jamaat, which opposed Bangladesh's war of independence, for perpetrating crimes against humanity in 1971.

Amid the heat of Shahbagh protests this month, the government has already made changes to ICT laws providing equal scope for both the prosecution and the defence to appeal against a verdict and also for trying organisations for crimes against humanity.

But the protesters are still on the streets and have renewed their pledge to continue with the movement until the last war criminal is executed.

They are running a signature campaign in a gesture to draw support to their demand of capital punishment of all the war criminals.

The protesters staged flag rallies at the capital's Rayer Bazar Mass Killing Ground and five other places.

They will hold a Nari Jagaran Samabesh (Women Resurgence Rally) at the Shahbagh on International Women's Day on Friday to pay homage to those women who were tortured and repressed during the 1971 Liberation War.