Demonstrators from the ‘Ganajagaran Mancha’ at Shahbagh on Thursday gave the government a Mar 26 deadline to start the process for banning Jamaat-e-Islami.
Imran H Sarker, the spokesperson for the ‘Ganajagaran Mancha’, also announced the next course of action while speaking at a massive rally at Shahbagh, now christened Prajanma Chattar, in the afternoon.
Sarker, however, did not make any specific announcement regarding their sit-in demonstration.
He later told reporters that they would converge on the Dhaka University-bound road instead of Shahbagh intersection from morning to night to press home their six-point charter of demand. They will hold a mass signature campaign from 10am and present cultural programmes there from 3pm every day.
The sit-in demonstrators will start at the same venue on 3pm the day before the International Crimes Tribunal pronounces a verdict on any of the war crimes suspects.
The protestors also issued an ultimatum to the government to arrest within next seven days the killers of Ahmed Rajib Haider, a young blogger and one of the organisers of the agitation against the 1971 war criminals.
“The uprising of the masses cannot go in vain. The Prajanma Chattar will always will be awake,” he told the massive rally.
Tens of thousands of people descended on the ‘Prajanma Chhattar’ as the protesters kicked off their grand rally at 3pm, to press their demand for awarding capital punishment to all convicted war criminals.
Leaders of different socio-cultural and political organisations were present there.
The 17th day of the popular movement coincided with the Language Martyrs’ Day, universally observed as the International Mother Language Day.
On Feb 5, the youngsters burst into protests at Shahbagh hours after the International Crimes Tribunal-2 sentenced Abdul Quader Molla, Assistant General Secretary of Jamaat, to life term in jail for perpetrating crimes against humanity during the Liberation War in 1971.
An online activists’ group, Blogger and Online Activists Network (BOAN), gave a call through online social networks to raise their voice against the ‘lenient’ verdict.
Source: bdnews24
