Pro-Jamaat and BNP lawyers yesterday offered Gayebana Janaza on the Supreme Court premises for the opposition supporters who had died for protesting the execution of war criminal Abdul Quader Molla on Thursday.
Lawyer Nazrul Islam said during the prayers: “Oh Allah! Please pardon us for our failure to make the court understand that Quader Molla was not the Koshai Quader of Mirpur (Butcher of Mirpur) of the capital.”
Quader Molla, the assistant secretary general of Jamaat-e-Islami, was hanged after the apex court had cleared all legal bars to execute the death sentence given for committing crimes against humanity during the 1971 Liberation War in Mirpur and Keraniganj.
During the prayers, Zainul Abedin, one of the advisers to the BNP chairperson; AM Mahbub Uddin Khokon, the BNP joint secretary; Saifur Rahman, the assistant secretary of Supreme Court Bar Association; Raghib Rauf Chowdhury, the acting office secretary of Jatiyatabadi Ainjibi Forum; were present.
After the prayers, they brought out a procession demanding an “end to shooting the opposition men.”
Also, Turkish sympathisers of Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami in protest against the execution threw eggs and bricks at the Bangladesh embassy in Ankara and staged demonstration in front of the Istanbul mission.
Anatolian Youth Association, an NGO, organised the demonstrations after the execution on Thursday, Bangladesh ambassador to Turkey Md Zulfiqur Rahman told the Dhaka Tribune.
“They went to embassy complex on Thursday night when nobody was inside, except for the security guards,” he said. “All of us are safe.”
The Turkish foreign ministry was informed about the incident and it beefed up security in and around the embassy complex, he said.
Some Turkish people also chanted slogans against the execution and the Bangladesh government in front of its consulate in Istanbul, said another diplomat seeking anonymity.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan also talked to Sheikh Hasina on Thursday afternoon and discussed about the execution, diplomatic sources said.
Meanwhile, the Turkish foreign ministry on Wednesday, prior to the execution of Quader Molla, issued a press release expressing concern.
“We are worried that the execution of this sentence may escalate tensions in Bangladesh,” the statement said adding, “Turkey believes that wounds of the past cannot be healed and social consensus cannot be reached this way.”
Turkish President Abdullah Gul in December last year wrote to Bangladesh president and prime minister expressing concern over the war crimes trials.
Bangladesh summoned the Turkish envoy and lodged strong protest over the issue.
