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Old February 6, 2013, 09:24 PM
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Shahbagh to see grand rally Friday

Quote:
Amidst a nationwide general strike by the Jamaat-e-Islami, demonstrators demanding death sentence for party’s Assistant Secretary General Abdul Quader Molla have announced to stage a grand rally at the city’s Shahbagh intersection Friday.

The announcement came from a rally which entered its the second day Wednesday.

Mahmudur Haque Munshi, a member of the Blogger and Online Activists Network and one of the organisers of the protests, urged everyone to join the grand rally.

“A rally will begin 8am Thursday at Shahbagh and the grand rally will be held on Friday,” he told bdnews24.com.

He said they would continue their protests until the verdict was reviewed and Molla was awarded the capital punishment.

An announcement from the main stage of the programme said the agitators would stay overnight at the intersection like the previous night.

The agitators have been demonstrating at the Shahbagh intersection since Tuesday evening, after the war crimes tribunal ordered life imprisonment for Molla for 'crimes against humanity' during the 1971 Liberation War.

Thousands of people burst into the streets to protest the verdict of Molla because they felt the punishment was too light. Hours after the verdict was read out at the tribunal, people from all walks of life assembled at the spot.

Sajeda Chowdhury, the Deputy Leader in Parliament, also rushed to the demonstration site.

The protestors have been singing, reciting poems, raising slogans, screening films and making speeches.

They wondered why the Jamaat Assistant Secretary General was given life term instead of a death sentence as “it was proven that Molla had murdered hundreds”.

They promised not to budge until their demand for hanging Molla for the crimes in 1971 was met.

Leaders from several political parties and a group of Dhaka University teachers have also joined the demonstrations.

The freedom fighters have also expressed solidarity with the protests.

Although the spirited protesters had besieged only Shahbagh intersection in the morning, their sit-in programme spread up to the Fine Arts faculty of Dhaka University in the south, Ruposhi Bangla Hotel in the north, Aziz Super Market in the west and Childrens Park in the east by the evening.

Earlier, the demonstrators put on black clothes in front of the Raju Sculpture in protest.

Students of the Faculty of Fine Arts drew images on the streets stretching from Shahbagh to Raju Sculpture demanding capital punishment to Razakars.

People from other surrounding districts of Dhaka have also gathered there.

Prof Rafiqul Hasan, a teacher of the Bangabandhu Agriculture University, rushed to the site from Gazipur as he heard about the demonstration.

He expressed discontent over the verdict. “The verdict has upset the youth,” he said.

He demanded capital punishment to the other war crimes accused as well.

Soumit Shuvra, a Chittagong University student, did not think a second time before coming to Dhaka from Chittagong, nor did Aminul Islam, a businessman from Narayanganj.
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