Rally at Shahbagh in the afternoon

Ganajagaran Mancha has called a rally at Shahbagh for Wednesday afternoon rejecting the appeal verdict of war criminal Delwar Hossain Sayedee and protesting against the police attack on its activists.

After Mancha spokesperson Imran H Sarkar and several others were injured by water cannons and teargas shells, Mancha organiser Students Union President Hasan Tarek announced the rally.

“People have rejected the verdict reducing Sayedee’s death sentence for crimes against humanity in 1971. Police have attacked Mancha activists for protesting against this verdict,” he said.

The rally was scheduled for a 4pm start at Shahbagh, he said.

The verdict follows Sayadee's appeal against the judgment by International Crimes Tribunal that awarded him death penalty in February last year.

Activists of the Ganajagaran Mancha – a secular, anti-fundamentalist platform that originated during the protests against top Jamaat leader Abdul Quader Molla’s ICT verdict last year – erupted in protest once again after hearing the court’s decision on Sayedee.

They alleged that the verdict was awarded “in collusion with” Jamaat.

Slogans were raised at Shahbagh protesting this ‘collusion’. After about an hour, police charged on the protesters.

Spokesperson Imran said the justice had been compromised and felt there was an attempt to reinstate war criminals.

On Feb 28 last year, the International Crimes Tribunal had ordered Sayedee’s execution for his involvement in crimes against humanity during the 1971 Liberation War.