The activists and supporters of Jamaat-e-Islami and its student wing Islami Chhatra Shibir unleashed terror across the country as the International Crimes Tribunal awarded death penalty to top Jamaat leader Delawar Hossain Sayedee on February 28 last year.
They began the attacks on February 27 as the tribunal declared that it would deliver verdict in Sayedee case the following day. Jamaat announced hartal again and started attacks, quite systemically.
Since February 28 through March 5, around 60 people were reportedly killed in different parts of the country, including general people without any political affiliation, as per the government data.
The destruction of the Palli Bidyut Samity office in Shibganj, Chapainawabganj alone bled the power sector of financial loss worth Tk200 crore approximately. The railway sector was badly hit with a clear motive. A number of train wagons were burnt to ashes in Rajshahi and Dhaka, rail lines derailed and station rooms destroyed, causing financial loss to the tune of Tk8.5 crore, according to government estimates.
The Jamaat-Shibir men threw off an engineer to death from the roof of a Parjatan motel in Chapainawabganj; brutally attacked an elderly Hindu man as he tried to resist their rampage and later succumbed to his injuries in Banshkali, Chittagong; killed a former Chhatra League leader by attacking him in a preplanned manner in a local garage in Sylhet; torched with petrol an auto-rickshaw carrying two fish traders who suffered serious burn injuries in Netrakona; and mercilessly hacked to death a number of police personnel in Gaibandha, Bogra and elsewhere.
They continued to attack houses, temples and prayer premises of the Hindus. In most instances, as in Bogra, Joypurhat, Sirajganj, Noakhali or Chittagong, the attacks were launched in a preplanned manner, and on occasions, violent Jamaat-Shibir processions suddenly veered towards predominantly Hindu neighbourhoods and launched indiscriminate attacks against them.
In some parts of Chittagong, Feni and Bogra, they incited violence by disseminating the absurd image of Sayedee being visible on the moon. Through announcements from mosques, they called people to attack the police and pro-government activists to save Sayedee.
They used women and children as human shields to allow the cadres carrying out their rioting and vandalism under cover. It is contrary to the Convention of the Rights of the Child and the National Children Policy 2012 that prohibits use of children in political and terrorist activities.
Until March 4, a total of 235 cases were lodged in connection with the violence in different parts of the country and 1,572 people arrested.