Contrary to his party’s stance, BNP’s Vice Chairman Sadeque Hossain Khoka on Saturday paid tribute to the protesters in the capital’s Shahbagh intersection for their indomitable spirit in demanding death penalty for the killers and the collaborators of 1971.
Addressing a rally at Naya Paltan, Khoka, himself a freedom fighter, said: “A rally called by the youths is going on at Shahbagh. They are demanding several things. We respect their emotions as a pro-liberation war party.”
Khoka’s comments were greeted by rounds of applause by party leaders and activists.
Despite repeated queries from the press, leaders of the main opposition party, the BNP, has so far maintained silence over the movement at Shahbagh.
However, BNP’s student affiliate, Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal had said on Wednesday that the protest at Shahbagh was being staged based on an “understanding” with the Awami League-led Grand Alliance government.
The protesters, mainly young men and women, have been demonstrating at the busy intersection of the capital since Tuesday demanding capital punishment for the Jamaat-e-Islami’s Assistant Secretary General Abdul Quader Molla.
He has been awarded life imprisonment for committing crimes against humanity during Bangladesh’s War of Independence in 1971. The protesters are calling the punishment “too light” compared to the crimes committed by Molla, widely known as “Butcher of Mirpur”.
The crowd, which is continuing with its protest at Shahbagh on Saturday – the fifth day in a row, is now raising slogans demanding death penalty for the killers and collaborators of 1971. The protestors are also demanding a ban on Jamaat-e-Islami, a key ally of the main opposition BNP.
So far, leaders from various political parties, including the ruling Awami League, have expressed solidarity with the movement, but BNP leaders have conspicuously kept themselves away from the protests at Shahbagh.
Sadeque Hossain Khoka on Saturday also urged the organisers at Shahbagh to press for “a non-partisan government for the next general elections along with the demand for trials of the war criminals”.
The senior BNP leader urged the youths to raise their voice against corruption.
“The protestors at the rally should also ask as to why Biswajit Das was killed?”
The former Mayor of Dhaka, alleged that “Sheikh Hasina wants to retain power through a partisan election. The youth must lend their voice against such a move along with the people of the country.”
BNP’s Acting Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir was alongside Khoka when the later commented on the Shahbagh rally. But Mirza Fakhrusl Islam Alamgir refrained from making any comment on the protest rally at Shahbagh.
