Jamaat-e-Islami calls for shutdown on Wednesday over Mir Quasem’s war crimes verdict

The Jamaat-e-Islami, which had actively opposed Bangladesh’s independence in 1971, has called for a dawn-to-dusk shutdown across the country on Wednesday after the Supreme Court turned down its leader Mir Quasem Ali's petition to review his death sentence for war crimes.

Following the apex court’s decision on Tuesday, the party, in a post on its website, dubbed the charges against Mir Quasem as “false and fabricated”.

 

The post came under the name of Jamaat Acting Secretary General Shafiqur Rahman.

 

It called a 24-hour general strike across Bangladesh, which will start from 6am on Wednesday.

 

“The government is killing the leaders of Jamaat-e-Islami one by one. Mir Quasem Ali is a victim of government’s conspiracy,” the post read.

 

The founding chairman of Islami Chhatra Shibir Mir Quasem is also a member of the Central Executive Council of the Jamaat.

 

The International Crimes Tribunal handed down capital punishment to Mir Quasem on Nov 2, 2014, for committing war-time atrocities.

 

The Appellate Division of Supreme Court later upheld the verdict for Mir Quasem who was proven guilty for the abduction, torture and killing of teenage freedom fighter Jasim Uddin during Bangladesh’s nine-month War of Independence from Pakistan.

 

The party had earlier called for shutdown and protests after the war crimes tribunal’s verdict on Nizami as well as the appeals verdict by the Supreme Court.

 

Its activists had then unleashed large-scale violence across Bangladesh, but its general strikes in recent times have failed to create much impact.