But the justice-seekers were disappointed as the special tribunal handed down life-term imprisonment instead of a death sentence for the notorious war criminal, who was found involved in genocide and rape.

Condemnation poured into social media, especially Facebook, against the lenient sentence. Some youths announced a human chain at Shahbagh at 3pm to demand death penalty for him since he might have walked free if the government changed.

Some organisers also raised the demand for banning religion-based politics, and removing state religion from the constitution, alleging that the provision promotes religious fanaticism and terrorism. But the platform did not adopt them.

Quader Molla was serving as the assistant secretary general of Jamaat that has never apologised for the atrocities committed in 1971.

Jamaat was even in the government for the first time in 2001 as part of the ruling four-party alliance led by the BNP, and two of its senior leaders were made ministers.

It was BNP founder Ziaur Rahman who lifted the ban on Jamaat and religion-based politics after the assassination of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. Earlier, Zia scrapped the Collaborators Act and released over 11,000 razakars being tried under the law.

By 3pm on February 5, 2013, some 50 youths joined a human chain in front of the National Museum in the capital, and the chain of protesters extended rapidly in the next two hours.
 

A protester shouts slogans while clad in the traditional colours of Pohela Falgun, the first day of spring, on February 13, 2013 during the Shahbagh movement Syed Latif Hossain/Dhaka Tribune

The organisers, Blogger and Online Activist Network (BOAN), then decided to occupy the Shahbagh intersection amid a Jamaat-enforced general strike around 5pm, and the participants went to the roundabout with a procession chanting slogans demanding death penalty for all war criminals.

In its first verdict, the tribunal on January 15 the same year had sentenced to death a former Jamaat leader Abul Kalam Azad alias Bachchu Razakar in absentia. Families of martyrs and war crimes trial campaigners expected the highest punishment for Quader Molla as well.

The activists started a sit-in at Shahbagh amid slogans and patriotic songs. Around 6pm, there were several hundred people gathered at the place. Civil society representatives, cultural activists, left parties and some ruling party leaders expressed solidarity with the movement.

Members of the ruling party’s student wing Chhatra League also joined the protests.

The protesters continued their programme throughout the night, and the organisers soon came up with three-point demands: death penalty for all war criminals, ban on Jamaat and its radical student wing Islami Chhatra Shibir, and confiscation of properties of convicted war criminals and nationalisation of Jamaat’s financial institutions and social organisations.

Some organisers also raised the demand for banning religion-based politics, and removing state religion from the constitution, alleging that the provision promotes religious fanaticism and terrorism. But the platform did not adopt them.
 

Activists of Ganajagaran Mancha arrange a candle light display in the capital’s Shahbagh intersection on 14th Feb 2013, demanding capital punishment for the war criminals during the Liberation War of Bangladesh Syed Zakir Hossain/Dhaka Tribune

The BNP initially welcomed the movement that turned into a sea of justice seekers, but soon made a U-turn reportedly after failing to convince the organisers to raise other issues including corruption of the ruling government – like the movements in several Middle East countries – dubbed “Arab Spring” around the same time.

BNP-Jamaat leaning newspapers and TV channels started campaigning against the movement’s organisers terming them “fascists,” “atheists” and “blasphemers.”

Within a week into the movement, people across the country launched similar sit-ins on Shaheed Minar premises and important spots expressing solidarity. Bangladeshis living abroad also staged demonstrations demanding death for all war criminals.

Within a week into the movement, people across the country launched similar sit-ins on Shaheed Minar premises and important spots expressing solidarity. Bangladeshis living abroad also staged demonstrations demanding death for all war criminals.

People and the media started calling the platform Gonojagoron Moncho and the place “Projonmo Chottor.”

The sit-in was held at Shahbagh without a break at least for 17 days and continued for a couple of months with intervals. During that time, people from all walks of life at home and abroad participated in the programmes declared by the Shahbagh organisers including candle light vigils and human chains.

The platform also submitted 10 million signatures to the parliament urging the government to fulfil their three-point demands.

The movement faced its first violent opposition on February 14 when Jamaat-Shibir men killed Agrani Bank staff Zafar Munshi in Motijheel area for unfurling a banner expressing solidarity.

The platform also submitted 10 million signatures to the parliament urging the government to fulfil their three-point demands.

A day later, a group of North University students linked to Chhatra Shibir hacked to death architect Ahmed Rajeeb Haider, an active participant of the movement, in front of his home in Mirpur. Soon after the murder, radical Islamists started campaigning on social media against Rajeeb branding him as an “atheist” – a strategy adopted by the Jamaat top brass and other collaborators during the Liberation War to justify the killings of freedom fighters.

The murder took place only four days after a Shibir-run blog published a list of bloggers and secular activists linked to the movement, urging its supporters to kill them.

In the face of growing demands, parliament passed an amendment to the International Crimes (Tribunals) Act of 1973 on February 17 to allow the prosecution to file appeals against the tribunal verdicts. As per the original law, only the defence was allowed to appeal against the judgements.

Radical Islamist platform Hefazat-e-Islam, formed by Qawmi madrasa teachers and students, groups linked to BNP-Jamaat alliance, started regrouping after the murder. They believed the propaganda against Rajeeb, and staged violent demonstrations across the country after the Jumma prayers on February 22. They vandalised and torched Gonojagoron Moncho stages in different districts as revenge.
 

Protesters during the Shahbagh movement Syed Latif Hossain/Dhaka Tribune

Jamaat and Hefazat supporters created a reign of havoc across the country killing several hundred people and destroying government properties after the war crimes tribunal on February 28 handed down death penalty to another influential Jamaat leader, Delawar Hossain Sayedee, for his war-time crimes committed in Pirojpur.

The Islamists gained support through these activists and later handed over a list of “atheist bloggers and websites” to the Home Ministry seeking stern punishment.

But they did not stop after the police arrested four bloggers for their suspected involvement in “defaming” the Qur’an and the Prophet (PBUH). Hefazat announced a long-march towards Dhaka for April 6 and placed a 13-point charter of demands including formulation of an anti-blasphemy law, banning free mingling of men and women, erecting statues and candle light vigils terming them Hindu culture, and declaring the Ahmadiyya community non-Muslim.

So far, more than two dozens campaigners for war crime trials have been killed. Al-Qaeda affiliated Ansarullah Bangla Team (now Ansar al-Islam) took credit for 13 attacks that killed 11 activists. The terrorist group termed its targets “atheists,” seeking to gain sympathy of the Islamist parties and groups.

So far, more than two dozens campaigners for war crime trials have been killed. Al-Qaeda affiliated Ansarullah Bangla Team (now Ansar al-Islam) took credit for 13 attacks that killed 11 activists. The terrorist group termed its targets “atheists,” seeking to gain sympathy of the Islamist parties and groups.

On the other hand, another group of militants affiliated with the Islamic State, New JMB, has killed dozens of people, mostly non-Muslim and non-Sunni community people, and carried out bomb and gun attacks on Ahmadiyya and Shia mosques and Hindu temples between September 2015 and July 2016. The group also claimed responsibility for the Holey Artisan Bakery attack that alone killed 24 people, mostly foreigners.

Both the groups want to establish Shariah Law in Bangladesh and bring the Rakhine State of Myanmar and parts of India under their Caliphate.

The government has yet to ban Jamaat, whose party registration with the Election Commission was scrapped by the High Court the same year, and an appeal against the verdict is pending with the Appellate Division. But it has taken measures to reform and nationalise the Jamaat-owned business institutions.

After the disposal of appeal verdicts, the government executed five top Jamaat leaders including Motiur Rahman Nizami, and Quader Molla. The appeals of several other Jamaat leaders against their conviction are pending with the apex court.

Republished with permission from Dhaka Tribune.
 

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An unruly mob of hundreds of people armed with locally-made weapons demolished at least 10 temples to the ground along with vandalising hundreds of houses of the Hindu community at Brahminbaria‘s Nasirnagar upazila on Sunday afternoon, reportedly in response to a Facebook post making satire of the Masjid al-Haram, the holy site of Muslims.

File Photo / Representative

Nasirnagar police have so far detained nine attackers and drive was underway to arrest others.

Meanwhile, district Awami League has demanded the withdrawal of Nasirnagar Upazila Nirbahi Officer (UNO) and the officer-in-charge of Nasirnagar police station.

Local citizens have organised a rally to promote communal harmony for Monday afternoon.

More than 100 people were injured in the attacks while six people were detained, according to reports.

Police took control over law and order in the area around 2:00 pm, a police official said. A raid was underway to nab the culprits, last reported.

Several hundred locals staged demonstration at Sarail-Nasirnagar-Lakhai highway on Friday noon demanding hanging of one Rasraj Das who allegedly was behind the FB post.

The temples are Duttobari temple, Nomosomudropara temple, Jagannath temple, Ghoshpara temple and Gouro temple.

Brahmanbaria Superintendent of Police (SP) Mizanur Rahman told the Dhaka Tribune that around 150 to 200 people launched the attacks and vandalised at least seven to eight idols of five temples in the area.

Mizan said a vested group carried out the attack to tarnish the government’s image.

Blaming the Jamaat-Shibir men for the attack, he said: “Those who were behind the attack will be arrested as soon as possible. Already we have detained six persons in this connection.”

Nasirnagar Hindu-Budhist-Christian Oikya Parishad president Adesh Dev, however, claimed to a news portal that in total 15 temples had been looted and destroyed.

“Several devotees were injured in the communal attack and police did not interfere into the looting. A BGB platoon has been deployed but only after the damage was done,” Dev said.

BGB 12 commander Lt Col Shah Ali said the para-military force were deployed on request of the deputy commissioner (DC) of the district to maintain law and order situation.

“A group of Hefajat-e-Islam supporters launch the attack on the Hindu community and vandalised their houses and temples while we were holding peaceful rally,” said Riazul Karim, convener of Nasirnagar unit of Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat.

On information, Brahminbaria DC Rezwanur Rahman and SP visited the spot and assured people of the community of taking stern action against the attackers.

Contacted, Nasirnagar upazila parishad vice chairman Anjan Dev said: “Although the situation is under control at this moment (Sunday evening), members of the minority community are in a panic still. Preparations are going on to file separate cases over the demolition of temples.”

In reply to a query, Brahminbaria DC Rezwan said: “RAB, police and BGB personnel have been deployed in the upazila. Those involved in the attack will be brought to book after investigation.”

Meanwhile, madrasa students of the district staged demonstration at the district press club Sunday demanding hanging of Rasraj Das, detained over the allegation of posting, from his personal FB account, a picture of Masjid al-Haram on which a picture of Shiva was juxtaposed.

Police detained Rasraj on Saturday and produced him before a Brahmanbaria court on Saturday.

The court sent him to jail.

This report first published on Dhaka Tribune is being republished with permission.
 

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To combat growing terrorism in Bangladesh the PM's lament over, 'What kind of Muslims are these people?' is not enough. 

The heinous massacre of innocent men and women peacefully eating their dinner at an up-market café in Dhaka this weekend has at last woken up Sheikh Hasina Wajed to the continuing reign of terror – in Allah’s name – in the country of which she has been prime minister (for the second time) since 2009. Or so we hope.

Eyewitness survivors have said the killers stormed the popular Holey Artisan Bakery in Dhaka’s posh Gulshan area on Friday evening shouting “Allah-o-Akbar”. “What kind of Muslims are these people? They don’t have any religion… terrorism is their religion,” the prime minister is reported to have stated while announcing the end of the siege which claimed 20 lives.

Begum Hasina would do better to ask herself the question that millions of Bangladeshi citizens have been asking in their own manner for many months now: What kind of Prime Minister are you, Begum Hasina? What kind of Islam do you profess and what does it demand of you?

For the past year-and-a-half her government and police have been mute witness as terrorists have picked their targets at will, one at a time, killing Hindu priests, Shias, Ahmeddiyas, Sufis, Pirs, secular activists, atheists, bloggers, writers, professors, students… One of them was a young student named Nazimuddin Samad. His crime? Organising campaigns for secularism on Facebook.

In an article published on this platform less than two months ago, Bangladesh’s feminist activist Khushi Kabir had pointed to her country’s dangerous drift towards extremist Islam: “The message that there is only one form, a form alien to this land, of belief and practice, that of the Wahabi/Salafis who are not part of the four Mazhabs of the Islamic Sunni belief is now being pushed with full force as the current agenda. Many killed in brutal manner have been believers, Pirs, Shias, Ahmedias, followers of the Sufi tradition, priests from other religions, writers who were not necessarily atheists”.

Kabir had lamented the Hasina government’s myopia over the dark clouds gathering over Bangladesh and the state’s callous naming of the victims as the accused: “Those feeling outraged at this [ongoing] barbarism are asked that one should be careful not to hurt the sentiment of the believers? Whose sentiment are we talking about? Which believers? The misogynists, communalists who preach and breed obscurantism, a group financially strong, having the backing of the powers that be, misrepresenting and misquoting for their own vested interests?”

Kabir had concluded her article with the words: “1971 has taught us that killing cannot stop freedom. It did not then, it will not now”. Her brave words, sadly, have not stopped the Islamists from their murderous misdeeds.

Social activists like Kabir are not the only ones concerned over the cancerous growth of extremism in the country’s body polity. The Dhaka Tribune reported on June 6 (2016) that over 1,00,000 ulema from Bangladesh had issued a joint fatwa against terrorism.

ISIS and the Al Qaeda are currently engaged in a fierce competition across our sub-continent aiming to outdo each other in spreading their terror tentacles. That’s now. But the malignant growth of Islamist extremism in Bangladesh can be easily traced back to the Jamaat-e-Islami (JEB) and its militant student wing, Islami Chhatra Shibir.

The Islamic State which has claimed “credit” for the latest mass murder at Holey Artisa Bakery has also boasted of targeting others in recent months. It and the Al Qaeda are currently engaged in a fierce competition across our sub-continent aiming to outdo each other in spreading their terror tentacles. That’s now. But the malignant growth of Islamist extremism in Bangladesh can be easily traced back to the Jamaat-e-Islami (JEB) and its militant student wing, Islami Chhatra Shibir.

The official website of the JEB continues to protest its innocence, claiming that “Islamists are the most principled, pious, god-fearing and kind people on the earth”. Facts on the ground tell a different tale.

• In March 2013, Amnesty International issued a press statement on the countrywide attack on Hindus in which more than 40 temples were vanadalised and scores of shops and homes were burnt down. Survivors told Amnesty International that the attackers were participants in rallies organised by the opposition Islamist party Jamaat-e-Islami (JIB) and its student group Chhatra Shibir.
• In April the same month, an entire galaxy of maulanas affiliated to the Imam Ulema Somonnoy Oikyo Parishad, Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat (Bangladesh) and other religious bodies in Bangladesh publicly denounced the Jamaat-Shibir for their link with terrorist Islamist organisations. “People who believe in Wahabism and Moududism (Maulana Abul Ala Maududi was the founder of the Jamaat-e-Islami) are enemies of Islam as they misinterpret Quran and Sunnah”, the Ahle Sunnat (Bangladesh) secretary general Syed Muhammad Masiuddoula had thundered at a Sunni Ulema-Mashayekh Conference on March 17.   
• In December 2013, the well-known human rights organisation Ain O Salish Kendra (AIN) documented 276 major incidents of attack by the Jamaat-Shibir extremists during the year in which a total of 492 people including 15 police members were killed and around 2,200 others were injured.

The demands of the terrorists in the latest carnage included the release of Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) activists who were sentenced to a 10-year jail term in January this year for their role in a string of bomb attacks in the country in 2005. The JMB which is now a local ISIS affiliate is committed to converting Bangladesh into an Islamic state through armed struggle. On August 17, 2005 it had detonated some 500 bombs, simultaneously across 300 locations in 50 Bangladeshi cities.

While the origin of the JMB in the late 1990s is shrouded in some mystery, the Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh (JIB) has been accused of patronising the former while it was part of the coalition government headed by the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP). In November 2005, a BNP MP, Abu Hena alleged that the JEB was directly involved in the emergence of the JMB. He even named two JEB ministers in the BNP-led coalition who he claimed "are doing everything for the militants". Hena’s expulsion from the party did not stop BNP’s former minister Oli Ahmed and BNP whip Ashraf Hossain from speaking out and implicating the Jamaat-e-Islami in the rise of extremism in the country.

Recall the vibrant ‘Shahbag movement’ of 2013 (many at the time drew parallels to the ‘Arab Uprising’) which started as a vehement rejection of the International Crime Tribunal’s (ICT) verdict to condemn Abdul Quader Mollah, assistant general secretary of Jamaat-e-Islami, to life in prison. Protestors wanted Mollah, who was convicted for killing hundreds of people and raping a young girl, to be put to death. But the movement soon took the form of a mass civil society awakening which demanded an end to all religion-based politics.

Sheikh Hasina Wajed, Prime Minister of Bangladesh (since 2009) has been leader since 1981 of the Awami Party which spearheaded the country’s 1971 breakaway from Pakistan, rejected the two-nations theory and espoused the ideal of a secular nation and state. Even in this dark moment it should be clear that there are millions of Bangladeshis – from students, professors and activists to a wide spectrum of maulanas wedded to a tolerant Islam – who are staunchly opposed to the Wahhabis/Salafi and the Maududian “enemies of Islam” determined to push the country towards a totalitarian Islamic state. In 2013, the Supreme Court declared the JEB as “illegal” and barred the party from contesting polls. In the past it had never managed more than 4 per cent of the votes in any election in Bangladesh.  

So, to return to where this article began, before the terrorists claim their next victim(s), Sheikh Hasina would do well to ask herself: What kind of a Prime Minister am I? What does my Islam demand of me?           
 

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