War Criminal's Punishment

The war criminal know as Rajakar started their hypocrisy from 1971 and still continuing. Their friendship and connection with Pakistan has not been changed since the war. After Bangladesh got independent these Rajakar's formed their own party know as Jamat-e-Islam, as I mentioned in my last post. It has been 42 years we Bangladesh got it's independence but till today not all of the war criminals got their deserved punishment. The political parties who hace the responsibilty of punishing them can come up with many excuses. Awami League, that was fromed by Sheikh Mujib always wanted to give these criminals the ultimate punishment. But the opposition party known as BNP is an ally of Jamat-e-Islam. All these years the patience of the public and also few parties have been tested as they still have to see those criminals roaming around.

One of the many leaders of JI is Abdul Qader Mollah. During the war they have committed murders, rapes and looting. The attempt of punishing them has been going on for the last 42 years. When finally Awami League came into power, Sheikh Hasina the PM got determined to punish them. In 2010 Bangladesh International Crimes Tribunal was formed. In 2013 5th February after many days of trial Abdul Qader Mollah, 63 years old, was sentenced to life in prison. He was convicted of five out of six crimes against humanity and war crimes. He was accused of raping an 11 year old girl and killing 344 people during the independence war. JI took it as an achievement as they knew they could get him out as soon as other party comes in power. The common public could not accept this decision as they could not wait anymore for justice. Soon hundreds of thousands common people especially young generation gathered in Shahbag Square, center of the capital. Reporters estimate that there were 100,000 to 500,000 people demanding the death penalty of war criminal, Abdul Qader. The place now is know as Projonmo Chottor (New Generation Roundabout). People were not satisfied with life imprisonment. Their demand was that he should get the punishment that serves his crime. They began with the call "fashi chai, fashi chai" (let him hang). Because it was now more than a revenge, it was something to get the true freedom and justice. 10 other Jamati leaders were with Mollah on the trial. As the loose punishment angered the people, the protest of Shahbag continued from February till April. It was thought that Shahbag Square can be the next Tahrir Square. It was the first time after liberation war that so many mass people gathered for justice. Soon it made the high court to reconsider the matter.

The protest of Shahbag Square

On 17th September 2013 the supreme court found Mollah guilty for murdering and converted his life sentence to death sentence. This decision made Jamat-e-Islam furious. They protested and attacked the capital. There were several clashes between them and the police forces, where 60 people got killed.  Finally the execution was scheduled on 11th December the same year. But due to all the challenges it took place on 12th December. During the same trial another JI leader, Delwar Hossain Sayedi, was sentence to death on 27th February. Qader Mollah had his time in power from 1986 to 1996 where he contested for Faridpur, one of the cities of Bangladesh, representing the party Jamat-e-Islam.

In 2013, from February to December all the protests and violence lead to many deaths. The most significant one was the blogger, Ahmed Rajib, who was one of the most prominent activist of Shahbag. He was killed by Jamt-e-Islam in front of his house.