Bangladesh will be set afire once a move is made to execute the death verdict on Jamaat-e-Islami Assistant Secretary General Abdul Quader Molla, the party has threatened.
Published : 22 Nov 2013, 07:15 PM
The Jamaat opposed the birth of Bangladesh in 1971 and its active role against the liberation was highlighted a multiple times in verdicts against its top leaders.
The ICT-1 verdict that sentenced Jamaat guru Ghulam Azam to 90 years in prison termed the party a ‘criminal organisation’.
The two war crimes tribunals have found eight Jamaat and two BNP leaders guilty in nine cases of atrocities in 1971.
In the final verdict on Molla, the Supreme Court sentenced him to death. The government says the sentence will be executed only after it received the full verdict.
“We want to warn that the 56,000 square miles will be set on fire once any move is made to execute the verdict on Jamaat Assistant Secretary General Abdul Quader Molla,” said Dhaka City Jamaat Assistant Secretary Shafiqul Islam Masud on Friday.
Verdict on Jamaat-e-Islami's chief Motiur Rahman Nizami is expected any day as the International Crimes Tribunal-1 finished its hearing on Nov 13.
Bangladesh would be shaken if Nizami was punished even for a minute, Masud also said at BNP-led 18-Party alliance’s rally at Suhrawardy Udyan in capital Dhaka.
“The government cannot get away by holding any unilateral election by putting our leader Matiur Rahman Nizami in jail, sentencing Maulana Delwar Hossain Sayedee to death and crippling Chhatra Shibir President Delwar Hossain,” said Jamaat Karma Parisad member Syed Abdullah Mohammad Taher.
Referring to arson and vandalism at Chittagong’s Sitakunda during the Opposition’s movement, he said, “Sitakunda incident is just a sample.”
“The whole country will turn into Sitakunda once the unilateral election is held. Sheikh Hasina-led illegal government’s throne will be set on fire.”
Jamaat’s student affiliate Islami Chhatra Shibir leader Atikur Rahman Atik spoke at the beginning of the rally. The rally began at 3pm.
BNP Vice Chairman and Dhaka City BNP Convenor Sadeque Hossain Khoka presided over the rally.
Before the rally began, Shibir activists thronged at the venue with banners, posters and pictures of their leaders who are arrested or convicted for their crimes against humanity during Bangladesh’s Liberation War.
The trial of the war-time crimes against humanity has begun after the present government formed the tribunal on March 25, 2010.
In its first verdict, the war crimes tribunal sentenced former Jamaat leader Abul Kalam Azad alias Bachchu Razakar to death in absentia on Jan 21 this year.
Jamaat's number two Sayedee was sentenced to death on Feb 28 in the third verdict.
This verdict was followed by countrywide violence unleashed by the Jamaat-e-Islami and its affiliates. At least 70 people, including several policemen, were killed in the mayhem.
The party's Assistant Secretary General Mohammad Kamaruzzman was also ordered to walk the gallows in the fourth verdict delivered on May 9.
In the fifth verdict, Jamaat's erstwhile East Pakistan chief Ghulam Azam, was sentenced to 90-year in prison on June 15.
The tribunal said it did not give him death sentence considering his age and failing health.
On July 17, Jamaat's Assistant Secretary General Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mujaheed was sentenced to death in the sixth verdict.
BNP MP Salauddin Quader was given death penalty on Oct 1 in the seventh verdict.
Former BNP Minister Abdul Alim was jailed for life on Oct 9 in the eighth verdict.
On Nov 3, Ashrafuzzaman Khan and Chowdhury Mueen-Uddin, former leaders of the Islami Chhatra Sangha, Jamaat's student affiliate in 1971, were sentenced to death in absentia in the ninth verdict.
Jamaat men carried the banners and posters to the rally on Friday, demanding unconditional release of Azam, Molla, Sayedee, Mujaheed and Kamaruzzaman.