The Ganajagaran Mancha has announced it would occupy Shahbagh until the death sentence of war crimes convict Abdul Quader Molla is executed.
The protest call was issued within minutes of the Chamber Judge of the Supreme Court halting the Jamaat-e-Islami Assistant Secretary General’s execution until 10:30am Wednesday.
The sit-in at Shahbagh had caused an upsurge across Bangladesh 10 months ago when the International Crimes Tribunal had handed Molla the life sentence.
On Tuesday, as Dhaka Central Jail authorities were preparing to carry out Molla’s death sentence at one minute past Tuesday midnight, the Supreme Court Chamber Judge, Justice Syed Mahmud Hossain, halted the hanging after the Jamaat leader’s lawyers moved a petition.
Soon after the court order, agitated Ganajagaran Mancha leaders and activists declared around 11pm their indefinite occupation of Shahbagh.
Mancha spokesperson Imran H Sarker told reporters that their sit-in this time would last until the execution was carried out.
He said, “We were waiting for the death sentence to be carried out. What happened that the hanging got stayed?”
The second war crimes tribunal had sentenced the Jamaat leader to life in prison on Feb 5 for war crimes during Bangladesh’s 1971 Liberation War.
Of the six charges against Molla, the ICT-2 acquitted him of one, and sentenced him to life for murder and rape in two charges. For the rest, he was sentenced to 15 years in prison.
The life term, widely considered light for the Jamaat leader, created a wave of anger and frustration, drawing people to Shahbagh for a mass protest.
The spontaneous vigil that continued for several more weeks at the Shahbagh intersection drew tens of thousands of protesters, shutting off traffic through the busy thoroughfare.
The protest spread to other districts across the country as men, women and children demanded maximum penalty for war criminals from the rally, dubbed as Ganajagaran Mancha— meaning people’s uprising.
Following the protests, the government filed an appeal with the Supreme Court against the sentence on Mar 3. Molla also appealed for acquittal.
Later, on Sept 17, the apex court raised the sentence from life term to death sentence. A death warrant for him was also issued on Sunday hours after the tribunal received a full verdict on his death sentence from the Supreme Court.
Source: Bd news24
