Bangladesh secular resistance to Islamist Mobs: Hope they have the stomach for violence

The Daily Star, February 23, 2013
Front Page

Shahbagh rises again

Less than a day after protesters at Shahbagh called off their nonstop demonstration demanding death penalty for all war criminals, people of all walks of life yesterday started gathering there again to protest against the Jamaat-Shibir rampage across the country.Photo: STARStaff Correspondent

As the Jamaat-Shibir and its sympathisers unleashed a reign of terror targeting the Shahbagh movement, protesters returned to the Shahbagh intersection yesterday afternoon, less than 20 hours after the nonstop movement was wound up.

Protesting against the countrywide violence, burning and tearing down of national flags and damaging Shaheed Minars in Dhaka and other districts, the Blogger and Online Activist Network began demonstrating all over the country since 7:00pm.

In Dhaka, Imran H Sarker, convener of the Network, issued an ultimatum to the government to arrest Mahmudur Rahman, acting editor of daily Amar Desh for "publishing motivating stories and instigating the violence".

"We have decided to continue our demonstrations round the clock until our demands are met," he said and added, “Our demand is simple. The organisations liable for war crimes during the Liberation War in 1971 must be banned."

He said the Shahbagh protesters demanded exemplary punishment to those who attacked journalists during the violence. "The Jamaat-Shibir carried out attacks across the country to foil our prayer-programme after Juma prayers," he said.

People from all walks of life started gathering at the protest venue from around 2:00pm, chanting slogans like "Joy Bangla" or "Jamat-Shibirer astana, bhenge dao guriye dao," (Demolish the dens of Jamaat-Shibir).

In port city Chittagong, thousands of protesters crowded the protest venue chanting slogans against Jamaat-Shibir. An angry mob damaged windowpanes of the offices of Diganta Television and daily Sangram -- two media houses linked with Jamaat -- near Cheragi Pahar Mor, reports our district correspondent.

On Thursday, issuing an ultimatum to the government to bring war crimes charges against Jamaat-e-Islami and initiate the legal process by March 26 to ban the party, the Shahbagh protesters announced a series of countrywide programmes beginning yesterday.

The programmes include special prayers at mosques after Juma prayers as well as at churches, pagodas and temples yesterday and holding more grand rallies, demonstrations and cultural programmes at different parts in Dhaka and other divisional cities.

Organisers has also told The Daily Star on Thursday night that although the protesters would not keep the Shahbagh intersection occupied for 24 hours from yesterday, they would gather at the venue the day before the war crimes tribunal is to deliver a verdict.

Shahidul Islam Shamim, a service holder who joined the Shahbagh protest yesterday, said as activists of Jamaat and its affiliated organisations attacked police and journalists their politics must be banned.

“Leaders of these parties should be given exemplary punishment," he said.

“We have been here for the last 17 days. We must not leave Shahbagh," said Fazle Masudur Rahman, another protester.

Zahirul Islam, a businessman, agrees and says: “It seems they [Jamaat] won't let me live in my own country.”

Demonstrators, most of them young men and women, started gathering in front of the national museum as the news of the Jamaat-Shibir violence spread. By 6:00pm, they reoccupied the Shahbagh intersection.

The Shahbagh movement began on February 5, hours after Jamaat assistant secretary general Abdul Quader Mollah was sentenced to life in prison for rape, killing and genocide in 1971. Protesters say a life term is too lenient a punishment for Mollah, known as the "Butcher of Mirpur" for his notorious role in the killing of hundreds during the war. Protesters have been demanding capital punishment to Mollah and all other war criminals.