Demonstrators from the sit-in at Shahbagh on Thursday gave the government a Mar 26 deadline to start the process of trying and banning Jamaat-e-Islami.Imran H Sarker, one of the organisers of the civil uprising, made the demand in an address to a massive rally at Shahbagah intersection, now known as Prajanma Chattar, in the afternoon.
He also announced their next course of action.
The announcement pulls the plug on the nonstop sit-in demonstration in the heart of the city after 17 straight days.
Sarker did not give any specific announcement regarding their sit-in demonstration in the new programmes.
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 protest cultural programmes there from 3pm every day.
The demonstrators will start their sit-in programme at the same venue at 3pm the day before the International Crimes Tribunal pronounces 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.
Announcing to continue with their movement, Sarker told the rally: “The uprising of the masses cannot go in vain. The Prajanma Chattar has awakened and always will be awake.”
Tens of thousands of people joined the rally as the protesters announced programme to press their demand for awarding capital punishment to all convicted war criminals.
Leaders of different socio-cultural and political organisations were present there.
On Feb 5, the youngsters started 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.
Surce: bdnews24.com
