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Vast Throng in Bangladesh Protests Killing of Activist Vast Throng in Bangladesh Protests Killing of Activist
(about 1 hour later)
DHAKA, Bangladesh (Reuters) — More than 100,000 protesters, angered by the killing of one of their organizers, poured back into the streets of the capital on Saturday to demand the death penalty for those found guilty of war crimes in Bangladesh’s 1971 independence conflict. NEW DELHI — Tens of thousands of people resumed mass demonstrations in Bangladesh’s capital on Saturday, intensifying their demands for more severe punishment for war criminals from the country’s 1971 liberation war, while also demanding justice for the slaying of a blogger who had been a leading organizer of the protests.
The demonstrators, who say that the life sentence given to an Islamist leader involved in the war is too lenient, reversed a decision to scale back their protests, now in their 12th day. The coffin bearing the body of Rajib Haider, an architect and blogger, was carried through the crowd in a public funeral at Shahbagh, a major intersection in Dhaka, the national capital. Bangladeshi television showed thousands of people kneeling in prayer, chanting slogans or waving banners bearing Mr. Haider’s image. The crowd were estimated at more than 100,000 people.
On Friday night, one of the protests’ organizers, Rajib Haider, an architect and blogger, was stabbed to death outside his home. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina visited Mr. Haider’s family on Saturday to express her condolences. Mr. Haider’s body was discovered Friday night near his home, after he had been savagely stabbed. His family has told the Bangladeshi news media that they believed that he was killed for his role in the protests and his outspoken criticism of the fundamentalist Islamist political party Jamaat-e-Islami.
Mr. Haider’s family members said they believed he was killed for standing up to the country’s largest Islamist party, Jamaat-e-Islami, and drawing people to the protests. The police said they had detained five suspects. “Haider’s killing occurred at a time when the youngsters have awakened and united the whole nation,” the prime minister told Bangladeshi reporters during her visit to the family’s home. “Let me promise that we will not spare the killers.”
“Haider’s death has rekindled our spirits,” said Nasiruddin Yusuf, a filmmaker. “It will not go in vain.” Saturday was the 12th consecutive day in which crowds of protesters have poured into the Shahbagh site for demonstrations. The movement began Feb. 5, when a coalition of bloggers called for protests against a verdict by the special tribunal prosecuting people accused of committing atrocities during Bangladesh’s 1971 war of independence from Pakistan.
A huge crowd gathered Saturday in Dhaka, the capital, for the Mr. Haider’s funeral. Many people vowed to avenge Mr. Haider’s death, and others broke down in tears as his coffin passed. The tribunal had handed down a life sentence to Abdul Quader Mollah, a Jamaat leader, after convicting him of murder, rape and torture. Protesters, however, demanded that he be sentenced to death, given the severity of his crimes. Many suspected that some sort of political deal had been reached to spare Mr. Mollah’s life.
Large protests were also reported in other cities. Security forces patrolled the streets in much greater numbers than in previous days. The bloody legacy of the 1971 war continues to cast a shadow over Bangladesh: an estimated three million people were killed and many of those suspected of committing atrocities have never been prosecuted. Besides the protests in Dhaka, demonstrations have spread to other major cities and towns across the country.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina visited Mr. Haider’s home and told his grieving parents that justice would be done. By the weekend, protest organizers had agreed to reduce their round-the-clock demonstrations to only seven hours a day. But they reversed that decision after the killing of Mr. Haider, and the crowds quickly swelled with college students, workers and other citizens.
“Rajib Haider’s killers have no right to do politics,” she said in comments broadcast live on television. She said Jamaat and its affiliates “do not believe in democracy.” Meanwhile, followers of Jamaat-e-Islami have staged often violent protests against the government, which the party has accused of manipulating the tribunal as a way to go after political rivals.
“They believe in terrorism,” she said. “That is what they are proving again.” The presiding justice of the tribunal has resigned over irregularities that arose over its proceedings.
The protests were set off by the life sentence imposed on Abdul Quader Mollah, an official of Jamaat-e-Islami, on Feb. 5. Most Bangladeshis had expected a death sentence for Mr. Mollah, who was charged with murder, rape and torture during the 1971 war.
Bangladesh became part of Pakistan at the end of British rule in 1947 but broke away in 1971 after a war between Bangladeshi nationalists, backed by India, and Pakistani forces. Three million people died, and thousands of women were raped.
Protest leaders have vowed to continue their demonstrations until Mr. Mollah, 64, is sentenced to death, along with others convicted of committing crimes during the war.
The opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party says the prime minister is using the war crimes tribunal, set up in 2010, as a political weapon. Ms. Hasina denies the accusation.