Resistance chant rings out at Shahbagh

Anti-war criminals protests exploded on the streets of Shahbagh on Friday in a broader outpouring of public anger after suspected Jamaat-e-Islami activists smashed Shaheed Minars and attacked replicas of Ganajagaran Mancha’ across Bangladesh.

Crowds of demonstrators marched across Dhaka to stream into what is by now the iconic Shahbagh intersection, the birthplace of the civil uprising.

Hundreds of people were brandishing sticks in the evening backlash in Dhaka. Ringing out at the now christened ‘Prajanma Chattar’, or New Generation Square, was the central chant of thwarting the Jamaat and its student front, Islami Chhatra Shibir.

After the Juma prayers in the afternoon, supporters of 12 radical parties had launched massive concerted attacks claiming the Shahbagh protest was campaigning against Islam.

Only the day before, the protesters had called off a nonstop agitation of Shahbagh after a 17-day blockade demanding death sentence for all the convicted war criminals.

The immediate trigger was Jamaat leader Abdul Quader Molla flashing a victory sign after the International Crimes Tribunal-2 on Feb 5 sentenced him to life in prison for crimes during the 1971 Liberation War.

They said the punishment for the ‘Butcher of Mirpur’ – as Molla was known during the war -- was “too light”.

The demonstrators eventually demanded capital punishments for all convicted war criminals and a ban on the Jamaat. In its verdicts, the ICT-2 had observed how the radical party had assisted the Pakistan army by forming auxiliary forces and trying to thwart the nation’s struggle for freedom.

The crowd spread well beyond the Hotel Sheraton in the north, Chhobirhaat in the south, the Ramna Park in the east and Katabon in the west.

They were seen determined to thwart the Jamaat-Shibir violence.

The ‘Ganajagaran Mancha’ has identified the Naya Diganta, Amar Desh newspapers and Diganta Television and as Jamaat-affiliated and had called for boycotting them.

The protesters called for country-wide demonstrations after Islamist supporters attacked Sylhet Central Shaheed Minar and vandalised protest platforms, launched arson attacks and set afire the national flag.

“The Jamaat-leaning Amar Desh has instigated (Friday’s) attacks. It’s (Acting) Editor Mahmudur Rahman must be detained within 24 hours,” said Imran H Sarker, one of the organisers of the movement.

Sarker warned of tougher agitation programmes if the government failed to arrest Rahman, a former advisor to BNP chief Khaleda Zia.

He also called patriotic citizens to come out on streets to the foil the nationwide strike called for Sunday.

“We’ll stay in the streets [and continue our demonstrations] from now on,” Sarker added.

Around 11:30pm, Sarker told the media from the Prajanma Chhattar that they would hold a rally and take oath at Rayer Bazar Martyred Intellectuals’ Memorial on Saturday.

He also urged the citizens to take part at a national flag procession across the country on the day to protect the dignity of the national flag and resist the defeated forces of 1971.

On Feb 15, the 11th day of the demonstration, blogger Ahmed Rajib Haider, one of the Shahbagh protest organisers, was hacked to death near his Pallabi residence in Dhaka.

Rajib used to write blogs under the pen name ‘Thaba Baba’. He tried to shed light on the violent nature of Jamaat and its student front, Islami Chhatra Shibir.

After his death, some newspaper ran reports terming him an ‘atheist’, ‘apostate’ and alleged that Rajib used to write against Islam.
On Friday, the BNP-leaning Amar Desh’s lead news headline, roughly translated in English, reads, ‘Bloggers committing contempt of religion and court’.

On Thursday, the demonstrators gave the government until Mar 26 to start the process of trying those parties that had committed war crimes during the nation’s Liberation War and ban Jamaat.

Meanwhile, 12 Islamist like-minded parties announced agitation programmes demanding punishments for the bloggers who had ‘disdained religion’ and a ‘conspiracy’ to ban religion-based politics.

Supporters of the parties took out processions in capital Dhaka and elsewhere and launched a spree of violent attacks before clashing with police.

The demonstrators attacked and smashed local protest solidarity stages in Chittagong and Rajshahi. They vandalised and torched the Sylhet Central Shaheed Minar.

Police said the Jamaat activists might have carried out the attacks under the cover of the programme.

The demonstrators of the Ganajagaran Mancha started converging at Shahbagh on Friday afternoon as the news of the attacks spread.

A bdnews24.com correspondent, present at the spot, said over a thousand people thronged Shahbagh in just 15 minutes.

A group of Dhaka University students again blocked vehicular movement in the key intersection around 5:30pm. Hundreds of demonstrators, led by Imran Sarker, came to the Ganajagaran Mancha around 5:45pm