India: Calcutta islamists protest against Shahbag and war crimes trials in Bangladesh

The Times of India

Bangla '71 trial protest storm hits Kolkata
TNN Feb 22, 2013, 02.19AM IST

KOLKATA: If morning shows the day, commuters were surely misled on Thursday. After a bandh day, they were relieved to see normal traffic movement on Thursday morning, but their exuberance turned into a nightmare soon after a rally organized by four minority organizations choked the heart of the city for more than three hours. Cars stood still on AcharyaJagadish Chandra Bose Road and key arterial roads for major part of the afternoon. The trade unions had eased Thursday's bandh keeping in mind the International Mother Language Day, but the torture on commuters refused to die down.

A strong crowd, owing allegiance to the All Bengal Minority Youth Federation, Sunnat- al- Jamat, Ulema Parishad and the Madrasa Students Union had assembled at Hazi Mohammad Mahasin Square in central Kolkata in the afternoon to protest against the trial of war criminals in Bangladesh. The protestors tagged the Seikh Hasina-led Awami League government's trial of war criminals as a "farce".

To punish war criminals, who had allegedly killed and tortured the freedom fighters of Bangladesh during the country's 'Muktijudhha' in 1971, the Hasina government had set up a special court and declared several prominent leaders of the country as war criminals. The agitating activists claimed that the Bangladesh government was trying to ban Jamat-e-Islami and its supporters.

The situation could have gone out of control since the agitators had a plan to stage demonstration in front the Bangladesh Deputy High Commission office at Circus Avenue. However, apprehending an outbreak of violence, city police took prompt action and a huge force was deployed on AJC Bose Road to restrict the movement of the rally. More than 400 cops - including RAF and riot police - were deployed in a three-tier security ring. The entire operation was led by additional CP Soumen Mitra. He was assisted by two joint commissioners, two deputy commissioners, six assistant commissioners and eight inspectors.

Since 12.30pm, police stopped vehicular movement on the Seladah-bound flank of AJC Bose Road and at 1.15pm, the Mullickbazar flank was also closed. The road remained closed till 3.45pm. During this time, vehicles were diverted through S N Banerjee Road and CIT road, thus slowing down vehicular movement in central and east Kolkata.

Later in the day, police managed to convince the leaders of the rally and the crowd was dispersed from Hazi Mohammad Mahasin Square peacefully. A 10-member delegation team then visited the Bangladesh Deputy High Commission office and submitted a letter of protest.