The Ganajagaran Mancha brought out a procession in the capital Tuesday afternoon protesting the daylong hartal called by Jamaat-e-Islami.
The procession that began at around 1pm at the capital’s Shahbagh intersection, the centre of the Ganajagaran movement, marched along the roads around Kataban and Rupashi Bangla Hotel.
Addressing a rally at Shahbagh following the procession, Ganajagaran Mancha spokesperson Imran H Sarkar said: “The nation rejected the hartal that Jamaat-Shibir had called to foil the war crimes trial. People will reject any of Jamaat’s future hartals in the same way.”
He also made a call for joining a rally on May 20 in Mymensingh and May 31 in Dhaka as a continuation of their demand for the capital punishment of war criminals.
The Ganajagaran Mancha, a platform of activists and bloggers, began the movement on February 5 demanding death sentences to all war criminals, after the International Crimes Tribunal handed down life imprisonment to Jamaat leader Quader Mollah for committing crimes against humanity during the 1971 Liberation War.
Jamaat, often linked with committing war crimes as a party, on the other hand, also demanded exemplary punishment for some of the leaders of the Ganajagaran movement, labelling them “atheists”.
The government on May 6 removed the permanent Ganajagaran stage from Shahbagh a few hours after the Hefazat-e-Islam demonstrators were driven out of the capital.