Gonojagoron Mancha demands suspension of diplomatic ties; threatens to besiege Pak high commission today; Pak flag, effigy of cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan burnt
People from all walks of life staged angry protests around the country yesterday scathingly criticising Pakistan for passing a parliamentary resolution against the execution of war criminal Abdul Quader Mollah and demanding that the government suspend all diplomatic relations with the country until it offers an apology.
In several divisional and district headquarters, including the capital, demonstrators burnt the national flag and effigies of two political leaders of Pakistan, whose army committed one of the world’s worst genocides in Bangladesh in 1971, helped by the likes of Mollah.
Imran H Sarker, spokesperson of anti-war criminal platform Gonojagoron Mancha, threatened that they would besiege the Pakistan High Commission in the capital’s Gulshan-2 today if the government did not suspend diplomatic ties with the country by 3:00 this afternoon.
Separately, protesters demanded that the government close down Pakistan’s High Commission.
Earlier in the day, several thousand people led by freedom fighters and family members of the martyrs marched towards the Pakistan High Commission, protesting the parliamentary resolution of Pakistan stating that Mollah was hanged for supporting Pakistan in 1971.
After they brought out a procession from Gulshan-2, law enforcers barred them twice, leading to scuffles that left several protesters, including a freedom fighter, injured. A police official later apologised for the incident and promised action against the personnel responsible.
While law enforcers barred the marchers near Australian High Commission, about a half kilometre from Pakistan’s High Commission, some 150 to 200 protesters managed to gather in front of Pakistan’s High Commission building and brandished shoes there. Law enforcers, however, drove them away from the place within five minutes.
Incensed by Pakistan’s stand, hundreds of people started gathering at Gulshan-2 intersection from 2:00pm, an hour before they were due to march to the high commission.
As police barred them, the protesters held a rally there and again tried to march towards the high commission half an hour later but were intercepted near Australian High Commission.
In the scuffles with police, Abul Kalam Azad Bir Bikram, sculptor Ferdousi Priyabhashini, and an organiser of Ganajagoron Mancha, Bappaditya Basu, were injured.
Addressing the gathering, war crimes researcher Shahriar Kabir urged the government to cut diplomatic relations with Pakistan unless they withdraw the resolutions and issue an apology.
Jahangirnagar University Vice Chancellor Prof Anwar Hossain, journalist Abed Khan, and Shaheedjaya Shyamoli Nasrin Chaudhury, among others, joined the rally.
Different socio-political organisations staged protest rallies in the capital and expressed deep shock at the resolutions passed in the national and Punjab provincial assemblies of Pakistan.
Jamaat-e-Islami leader Quader Mollah was executed on Thursday for committing mass murder, rape and other crimes against humanity during the country’s Liberation War.
Several leftist political parties, including the Communist Party of Bangladesh, Bangladesher
Samajtantrik Dal and Ganasamhati Andolon rallied in front of the capital’s Jatiya Press Club, while former student leaders burnt Pakistan’s flag there last evening.
In Rajshahi city, demonstrators burnt Pakistan’s flag during a rally at Shaheb Bazar zero point, organised by Ekatturer Ghatak Dalal Nirmul Committee and Workers Party. Flags were torched in Chittagong city and Bogra town by Jege Utho Bangladesh and Sammilito Sanskritik Jote.
Protesters at the Central Shaheed Minar burnt an effigy of cricketer-turned-politician and chief of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Party Imran Khan who called Mollah “innocent”.
In Chittagong city, people torched an effigy of Pakistan’s Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan who remarked on Sunday that Mollah was hanged “through a judicial murder”.
Sector Commanders Forum, Democratic Lawyers Association of Bangladesh, Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal, Gonoforum, Jatiya Nari Jote, Peshajibi Nari Samaj, and student leaders associated with different political parties issued separate statements slamming Pakistan for violating diplomatic norms.
Source: The Daily Star
