Ganajagaran Mancha to continue Shahbagh demonstrations until Kamaruzzaman is executed

Ganajagaran Mancha says it will pesson with their sit-in at the Shahbagh crossway until Jamaat-e-Islami leader and war crimes convict Mohammad Kamaruzzaman hangs.

“We started our sit-in at 4pm on Sunday. We will stay at Shahbagh until war criminal Kamaruzzaman’s death sentence is carried out,” Imran H Sarkar, the platform’s spokesperson, said to to bdnews24.com.

“We are hoping our wait will end on Monday.”

The secular, youth-led platform is campaigning for maximum penalty permissible under law penalty for war criminals.

A four-strong appeals bench led by Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha heard the death-row convict’s plea to review his death penalty on Sunday.

It is set to give its decision on Monday.

On Nov 3 last year, the same bench had upheld the war crimes tribunal's verdict of death sentence for the Jamaat-e-Islami leader.

Former Al-Badr leader Kamaruzzaman was sentenced to death in 2013 for committing atrocities on Bengalis during the 1971 Liberation War as did many other Jamaat activists at that time.

The war crimes tribunal issued a death warrant for him after the Appellate Division published the full verdict upholding the death penalty.

However, the execution was not carried out after the convict appealed on Mar 5 for a review of the decision.

Hearing on the plea had been deferred twice as the defence sought time before it was heard on Sunday.

If the judgment is not reviewed, Kamaruzzaman, now the Jamaat-e-Islami's assistant secretary general, can file a mercy petition with President Md Abdul Hamid.

Kamaruzzaman is the second war crimes convict to file a review petition with the top appeals court before the verdict is being implemented.

Jamaat leader Abdul Quader Molla was hanged in December 2013 after his review petition was turned down.