Nizami hanging triggers midnight celebration at Shahbagh

A spell of happiness and celebration has swept through Shahbagh as leaders and activists of the Ganajagaran Mancha cheer the hanging of war criminal and Jamaat-e-Islami chief Motiur Rahman Nizami.

Staff Correspondentbdnews24.com
Published : 10 May 2016, 09:52 PM
Updated : 10 May 2016, 09:57 PM

The Ganajagaran Mancha members earlier staged a sit-in in front of the National Museum at Shahbagh at about 9pm on Tuesday, hours before the hanging, demanding his execution.

The Mancha was instrumental in building up of mass mobilisation in support of seeking the highest punishment for war criminals of 1971.

When the news of the hanging reached the assembly at midnight, loud jubilations echoed through the night air as Ganajagaran Mancha activists cheered the outcome.

Ganajagaran Mancha Spokesperson Imran H Sarker hailed the hanging as a “milestone” in the legal history of Bangladesh.

“It will serve as a source of strength to the present generation and convey the message that even 45 years after the event, we did not spare the culprit,” he said.

“The same lust for blood that the war criminals had in ’71 has been retained by their inheritors”, he said and added, “They have been consistently seeking blood, we have lost 24 of our fellow warriors in our movement against the war criminals.”

He accused the war criminals and their next generations of preparing the blueprint to convert the country into a nation of terrorists by indulging in routine murders of students and intellectuals.

Nizami, the dreaded Al Badr commander was convicted for the killing of intellectuals and for several other war crimes by the International Crimes Tribunal which sentenced him to death on Oct 29, 2014.

The top appeals court on Jan 6 upheld the maximum penalty after hearing his appeal. The same bench dismissed his review petition on May 5.