Memo for Mahmudur's arrest given

The Shahbagh protesters turned up the heat on the government on Tuesday to arrest Bengali daily Amar Desh Acting Editor Mahmudur Rahman when they submitted a memorandum to the Ministry of Home.

They accuse him of spreading communal hatred and instigating violence through the newspaper.

The protesters took out a procession from the Ganajagaran Mancha at Shahbagh intersection, now christened Prajanma Chattar, after 4pm while police barricaded them in front of the Matsya Bhaban.

Later, a five-member delegation of the Ganajagaran Mancha led by its convener and spokesperson Imran H Sarker went to the ministry and submitted the memorandum to Home Minister Muhiuddin Khan Alamgir to reinforce their demand to arrest the Acting Editor for instigating radicals to thwart war crimes trial.

Thousands of youths – demanding death to the convicted war criminals of the 1971 Liberation War and a ban on Jamaat-e-Islami – announced demonstrations near the ministry from their Monday’s rally at Mirpur-10 intersection.

Amar Desh and some other newspapers and television channels have allegedly been carrying write-ups insulting Islam and Prophet Muhammad, claiming that they were published by the Shahbagh activists on blogs and websites.

The life term sentencing of Jamaat-e-Islami Assistant Secretary General Abdul Quader Molla on Feb 5 by the International Crimes Tribunal (ICT)-2 angered the youths, prompting them to begin the sit-in at Shahbagh as they believed he deserved death penalty for his crime against humanity in 1971.

The protests have already turned into a civil uprising and moved expatriate Bangladeshis.