Chalo, chalo Shahbag chalo

Tahir Mehdi | 22nd February, 2013

http://dawn.com/2013/02/22/chalo-chalo-shahbag-chalo/

Photo courtesy: Flickr

There are only a few occasions when I really miss ‘East Pakistan’. These days are one of those. Had we been together, Shahbag would have won at least a two-column on page 3 and chalo chalo Shahbag chalo graffiti on some town walls. Maybe the Dhaka bureaus of few channels would have covered the massive youth gathering there and improvising further on my wish list, perhaps the demands of the Shahbag mass could have triggered a parallel youth movement over here. But pity me, I came to know about what’s happening in that Dhaka city compound through New York Times despite the fact that it is related to us — Pakistanis — in more than one direct ways.

It started on 5th February, the day Bangladesh’s International Crimes Tribunal awarded life sentence to a person nicknamed ‘Butcher of Mirpur’ for his part in the mass murder and rape of Bengalis in 1971. He is a leader of Bangladesh’s Jamaat-i-Islami. The sentence was the second from the Tribunal. The first one had awarded death sentence to another Jamaat leader who was tried in absentia — the police suspects he had escaped to Pakistan sometime back.

The international community is not happy with the death penalty and also found the trial falling short of meeting the international standards of justice. Many also see the whole matter of trying war criminals as a ploy by the ruling Awami League to divert the Bangladeshi public’s attention from its abysmal performance over past four years. The country will go to polls early next year. Awami League will face the four party alliance led by Khaleda Zia’s Bangladesh Nationalist Party with Jamaat as its second largest partner. Hence, hitting at Jamaat will also supposedly batter the opposition alliance.

All of this may be true, but only partly. The crowd at Shahbag has shown some characteristics that distinguish it from what a conspiratorial power can assemble. Starting with a small spontaneous gathering powered by social media, it has sustained itself to date and its ranks have been swelling continuously. Moreover, I feel that the energy emanating from it can’t be artificial. But if you think I am getting carried away, do compare it with the crowd that had gathered in Islamabad a few weeks ago to purge the country of yazids. The two are in complete contrast and their stark differences can exemplify conspiracies and movements.

Critics are also skeptical of the main demand of the Shahbag movement — death for war criminals, no less and nothing else. This should, however, be viewed in the light of the fact that Jamaat has a history of dodging efforts for a war crime trial in Bangladesh. But this time around, it seems they are left alone and exposed. After the first death sentence by the Tribunal, the government and the court were publicly criticised by western countries and the pressure is likely to have softened the second sentence to life imprisonment. One can expect that the next sentences would be even milder and in the end the initiative of settling the issue of war crimes would fizzle out, again.

The Shahbag youth, I believe, is not frustrated at the ‘leniency’ of the verdict as much as it is infuriated by the Jamaat getting away with murder. Jamaat’s volunteer corps were known to be the ears and eyes of the Pakistan Army in 1971 and served as its point men at the time. But what surprises me most is the absence of Pakistan from the Shahbag protest. One can understand the legal limitations and diplomatic expediencies of the Bangladeshi government but the same does not hold true for the ‘vengeful crowds’. You don’t hear any slogan against Pakistan, see no flag or effigy burning, not even some pressure for the government of Pakistan to offer an apology. I have scoured through the internet and have found no trace of Pakistan at Shahbag — just that the star and the crescent appears on the caps of hated clerics in posters and placards. The Bangladeshis are strictly observing the protest as an internal affair — the matter is between the people and the Jamaat, Pakistan comes only as a reference. So the context may be historical, the fight is all about the present and the youth does not need any forensic evidence as their daily lives can stand to witness as to what Jamaat and Shibir mean to their freedom (the student wing of Jamaat is called Jamiat in Pakistan and Shibir in Bangladesh).

Jamaat-Jamiat seem to stand against everything that most of the youth loves — arts, culture, freedom and friendship. To me, they signify a force that wants to obscure knowledge, stifle creativity and dissent; a force that intrigues, maneuvers, manipulates and conspires. The happenings of 1971 seem to epitomise what the party stands for and that was also the time when Jamaat was at its fiercest. If it can be seen to get away with the most heinous of its acts, nothing should stop it from ruling over every aspect of the present-day lives of Bangladeshi youth.

The fundamentalist narrative of Islam has come to dominate the lives of middle classes across the Muslim world for over half century now. It was presented to them as a viable option to build egalitarian societies while staking claim to a unique identity in compensation for their traditional ones that they had lost to colonial machinations. Its champions, the Jamaat-i-Islami included, have deceived the populace and have traded our dreams for the clergy’s vested interests, pushing us into the lairs of blood thirsty dictators and auctioning our souls to the highest bidder in the geopolitics bazaar.

What was once ‘East Pakistan’ has seen the most merciless of the faces of religious nationalism and ‘West Pakistan’ is still bleeding from the thousand cuts it has endured from the same. As a matter of fact, middle classes across North Africa, Middle East and Far East are suffering in various ways and degrees from the myopic narrative of political Islam that bars them from accepting who they are and stopping them from living lives to the fullest.

A counter narrative raises its head only occasionally. It has proven to be meek and elusive. It has dropped some hints, tweeted a few times, but has largely remained confined to academic circles. Can Shahbag be seen as a step to take the debate to the populist realm, an attempt to make familiar the alternative intellectual discourse? I wish it to be so. Challenging the conservative narrative in bold terms and brave ways shall give way to a new discourse on what role religion should have in our collective national lives. And if it has to start with a few bold steps in Dhaka, so be it, and let us chalo, chalo Shahbag chalo.

The writer works with Punjab Lok Sujag, a research and advocacy group that has a primary interest in understanding governance and democracy.

Dhaka war crimes protest gains ground
By Syed Tashfin Chowdhury

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/SOU-02-150213.html

DHAKA - Demands from a mass protest for all war criminals convicted of committing atrocities in Bangladesh's 1971 independence struggle to be given the death penalty have won the support of millions of Bangladeshis as the demonstration enters its tenth day.

The protest which began on February 5 at the Shahbagh intersection in Dhaka, has spread beyond the capital amid reform demands that include a ban on Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami, a

member of the 18-party alliance that forms the opposition. It was sparked on the same day by a 31-year jail term handed to the party's general secretary, Abdul Quader Mollah, who was convicted of war crimes that included mass murder and rape.

The demonstration enjoyed the first fruits of success on February 11 when the country's cabinet gave the nod to a bill that would allow the government to challenge courts over sentences given under the International Crimes (Tribunal) Act.

Protesters at Shahbagh had initially demanded that Mollah be hanged along with other people who committed war crimes in 1971. During the bloody independence most of the top leaders of Jamaat-e-Islami collaborated with the Pakistani armed forces to wreak havoc on the Bangladeshi populace. Jamaat, a faction of the original political party in Pakistan, in 1971 officially rejected Bangladesh's desire to split from Pakistan (at that time was known as West Pakistan).

Jamaat-e-Islami acting secretary general Rafiqul Islam Khan in a press statement released before the February 5 judgement on Mollah, said, "Do not push the country into a civil war by delivering one-sided verdicts against our leaders. If anything happens against Quader Mollah, every house will be on fire."

Hours after Mollah was sentenced under the country's International Crimes (Tribunal) Act, a group of bloggers under the platform "Bloggers and Online Activists Network" decided to form a human chain near Shahbagh intersection of Dhaka, one of the busiest junctions in the city. The verdict infuriated millions of Bangladeshis, who were waiting for news of another capital punishment similar to the first historic war crimes verdict on January 21, against Abul Kalam Azad, another war criminal and former Jamaat-e-Islami leader. Azad, who allegedly has fled the country, was tried in absentia for crimes against humanity.

Protesters were joined by thousands of people on February 5, and over the next few days demonstrators from other parts of the country travelled to Dhaka to take part. Most are still at the demonstration site.

The February 5 judgement said that a small number of Bangalees, Biharis, other pro-Pakistanis, as well as members of a number of different religion-based political parties, particularly Jamaat-e-Islami and its its student wing, joined or collaborated with the Pakistan occupation army to resist the formation of an independent Bangladesh, and that most of them committed and facilitated the commission of atrocities in violation of customary international law. Alongside Mollah, other senior Jamaat leaders being tried under the international crimes act, include Delwar Hossain Sayedee and Ghulam Azam.

The Shahbagh protesters are demanding capital punishment for all crimes against humanity in Bangladesh in 1971 when, according to the prosecution during Mollah's trial, "some three million people were killed, nearly a quarter-million women were raped and over 10 million people were forced to take refuge in India to escape brutal persecution at home, during the nine-month battle and struggle of the Bangalee nation". Bangladesh, which was then East Pakistan, was being ravaged by military forces from West Pakistan.

The Bangladesh cabinet on February 11 noted protest demands by giving the nod to a bill for the amendment of Section 21 (2) of the ICT Act, which if approved by parliament in its present session would give the government a right to appeal to the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court against any inadequate sentence or order of acquittal pronounced by the International Crimes Tribunal for any of the accused. The court would then have 90 days to dispose of the appeal or order an acquittal.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said in parliament on February 10 that she would do everything to amend the relevant law if there were any weakness in it. The government has not officially said anything about changing Mollah's verdict once the bill is passed.

Jute and Textiles Minister Abdul Latif Siddiqui has said that a bill seeking to ban the Jamaat-e-Islami and its student wing would be placed in the current parliament in line with the demand of the ongoing nationwide mass movement. The minister took part in a three-minute silence on February 12 to demand the death penalty of war criminals.

Back at the Shahbagh intersection, protesters are keeping the demonstration alive by chanting slogans, burning effigies of war criminals and collecting signatures for petitions, among other means of projecting their grievances.

"Dhaka university film associations are screening films, there are people singing songs, reciting poetry; it's an exhilarating experience," Mahbubul Haque Bhuiyan, a recent post-graduate student in journalism from Dhaka University who joined the protest on day one, told Asia Times Online. "Till now, the bloggers have been able to keep the protests free from politics."

Other protesters said that attempts by politicians from the ruling Awami League (AL) to steer the protests to their advantage were ongoing.

Top AL leaders, including the deputy leader of the parliament Syeda Sajeda Chowdhury, Forest and Environment Minister Dr Hasan Mahmud, and Post and Telecommunications Minister Sahara Khatoon, tried to speak, only to be heckled by the crowd. On February 7, protesters hurled stones and empty water bottles at special assistant to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and joint AL general secretary Mahbubul Alam Hanif, forcing him to leave the protest site.

Protesters have also told Asia Times Online that activists from the ruling party's student wing, Bangladesh Chhatra League's (BCL), have been trying to take control by paying the tabs, providing food, and steering protests inside the Dhaka University campus and other ways. "But we hope to keep the protests entirely neutral till the end," said a blogger from the BOAN, who did not want to be identified.

People outside of the capital city as well as non-resident Bangladeshis living in other parts of the world have also demonstrated solidarity with the Shahbagh movement, with protest pictures posted online.

While sharing similarities to Arab Spring protests and the recent sit-in in Islamabad, the Shahbagh protests have some distinctive features. Dr Fahmidul Haq, associate professor of mass communication and journalism department of the University of Dhaka, said, "In regard to Arab Spring and others, we have seen the protesters used Facebook, Twitter and YouTube to continue their protests but here the protest has been called by a group of bloggers."

The main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) remarked on Tuesday that the "rally is losing neutrality" due to a liberation war-era slogan being chanted again and again. The slogan "Joy Bangla" has been associated with the ruling AL since 1971. However, BNP welcomed the youth movement.

While these events are breathing down Jamaat-e-Islami's neck, the party has already termed the protests "a government plot to create anarchy" and force the tribunals to "deliver verdicts as per its dictate."

Skirmishes occurred between Jamaat activists and police in Dhaka's Tejgaon, Karwan Bazar and Motijheel areas and other parts of Bangladesh, on Tuesday and Wednesday and also in different parts of the country on Thursday.

Syed Tashfin Chowdhury is the Editor of Xtra, the weekend magazine of New Age, in Bangladesh.

(Copyright 2013 Asia Times Online (Holdings) Ltd. All rights reserved. Please contact us about sales, syndication and republishing.)

Students in Bangladesh rally to back war crimes trials, demand death for defendants

(Pavel Rahman/ Associated Press ) - Bangladeshis wave flags and shout slogans demanding death to Islamic political party leaders who are on trial for alleged war crimes during the country’s 1971 independence war, in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Saturday, Feb. 23, 2013. Eight top leaders of Jamaat-e-Islami, the country’s largest Islamic party, are being tried on charges of mass killings, rapes and arson allegedly committed during Bangladesh’s nine-month war of separation from Pakistan.

By Associated Press,

Feb 24, 2013 01:48 AM EST

AP Published: February 24

DHAKA, Bangladesh — Thousands of students rallied in Bangladesh’s capital on Saturday demanding death to Islamic political party leaders who are on trial for alleged war crimes during the country’s 1971 independence war.
Eight top leaders of Jamaat-e-Islami, the country’s largest Islamic party, are being tried on charges of mass killings, rapes and arson allegedly committed during Bangladesh’s nine-month war of separation from Pakistan.
Earlier this month, a tribunal convicted party leader Abdul Quader Mollah of mass killings during the war and sentenced him to life in prison, a sentence that many Bangladeshis considered lenient.
On Saturday, about 5,000 students shouted “Death to the killers” as they rallied in Dhaka.
The government says it will appeal Mollah’s sentence before the Supreme Court this coming week, asking for the death penalty for the 65-year-old.
Saturday’s protest came a day after activists from Jamaat and an alliance of 12 other Islamic parties clashed with police across the country, leaving four people dead and around 200 injured, including about a dozen journalists.
After Friday’s violence, the Islamic party alliance called a nationwide general strike for Sunday, accusing the police of foiling their protests and alleging that the government is planning to ban religion-based political parties. The government denies that religion-based parties will be banned.
The main opposition party, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, led by former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia, said it would back Sunday’s strike.
Sunday is a working day in Muslim-majority Bangladesh, where strikes are common opposition tactics to highlight demands.
Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

2 dead as Bangladesh police clash with Islamic party protesters over war crimes trials

Published February 22, 2013

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2013/02/22/2-dead-as-bangladesh-police-clash-with-islamic-party-protesters-over-war-crimes/

Associated Press

DHAKA, Bangladesh – Police across Bangladesh clashed Friday with protesters from Islamic political parties denouncing war crimes trials linked to the country's 1971 independence war, killing two demonstrators and injuring dozens of people, police and witnesses said.

The nationwide protests were held separately by Jamaat-e-Islami, the country's largest Islamic party, and an alliance of 12 other smaller Islamic parties. Jamaat called the demonstrations to denounce the war crimes trials of its top leaders.

Earlier this month, a special tribunal convicted Jamaat's assistant secretary, Abdul Quader Mollah, of mass killings during the independence war against Pakistan and sentenced him to life in prison. Another eight leaders of the party are on trial on charges of atrocities during the nine-month war.

The alliance of 12 parties accuses the government of plotting to ban Islamic parties, an allegation denied by the government.

Even though the alliance does not back Jamaat, protesters from both sides mingled Friday in the capital, Dhaka, according to an Associated Press reporter and photographer at the scene.

In Jhenaidah town, 128 kilometers (80 miles) west of Dhaka, clashes between Jamaat activists and police killed one protester, said local police official Hasan-uz Zaman. He provided no further details.

Another protester was killed in Sylhet city, 192 kilometers (120 miles) northeast of Dhaka, when police opened fire on several hundred activists from the Islamic party alliance, a policeman said. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not permitted to speak to the media. Dulal Chandra, a doctor at the state-run Sylhet Medical College Hospital, said a man arrived there dead from the scene of the violence.

In central Dhaka, police fired tear gas when about 2,000 stone-throwing members and supporters of Jamaat-e-Islami took to the streets and tried to overrun police barricades, witnesses said.

About 40 people, including 12 journalists, were injured in the Dhaka clashes, private television station Ekattor TV and ATN News reported.

The alliance of Islamic parties called a nationwide general strike for Sunday, accusing police of foiling their protests

Students in Bangladesh rally to back war crimes trials, demand death for defendants

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2013/02/23/students-in-bangladesh-rally-to-back-war-crimes-trials-demand-death-for/

Published February 23, 2013

Associated Press

DHAKA, Bangladesh – Thousands of students have rallied in Bangladesh's capital demanding death to several Islamic political party leaders who are on trial for alleged war crimes during the country's 1971 independence war.

Eight top leaders of Jamaat-e-Islami, the country's largest Islamic party, are being tried on charges of mass killings, rapes and arson during Bangladesh's nine-month war of separation from Pakistan.

Earlier this month, a tribunal convicted party leader Abdul Quader Mollah of mass killings during the war and sentenced him to life in prison, a verdict considered lenient by many Bangladeshis.

On Saturday, about 5,000 students shouted "Death to the killers" as they rallied in Dhaka, the capital.

The government says it will appeal Mollah's sentence before the Supreme Court this coming week, asking for the death penalty for 65-year-old.

Bangladeshi protesters against War criminals

Thursday, February 28, 2013