The Ganajagaran Mancha, pressing for maximum penalty for convicted war criminals, has announced a rally at Dhaka’s Shahbagh for Friday rejecting the Supreme Court’s overturning Delwar Hossain Sayedee’s death sentence.
Published : 17 Sep 2014, 08:40 PM
Activists of the secular platform began protesting at Shahbagh on Wednesday noon after the apex court’s verdict that reduced his punishment to ‘imprisonment until death’.
But police used teargas and water cannon to disperse them.
They alleged the government had colluded with Jamaat and dubbed Sayedee's verdict "planned and motivated that smacked of conspiracy".
Several Mancha activists, including its spokesperson Imran Sarkar, were injured in police action which the state minister for home defended saying no-one had the right to protest blocking streets.
Only a year ago, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and ruling party leaders expressed solidarity with the popular movement.
Blog activist Arif Zebtik announced the protest programmes that include staying at Shahbagh until 10pm on Wednesday and organising demonstrations across Bangladesh on Thursday.
Dubbed “the Bangla Spring”, the Mancha exploded into existence last year when general people gathered at Shahbagh to protest against life sentence of war criminal Jamaat leader Abdul Quader Molla.
The protesters then occupied the key city point for around a month and were given police protection.
Faced with the popular movement, the government amended the International Crimes Tribunal Act, under which the suspected war criminals are being tried, allowing prosecution rights to appeal against the verdicts.