Bangladesh Jamaat enforces strike over party leader’s death penalty
DHAKA, Dec. 31 (NsNewsWire) — Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami party has enforced a dawn-to-dusk nationwide strike for Wednesday.Bangladesh The party has called nationwide strike for Wednesday and Thursday in protest against the death sentences handed over to its leader for war crimes against humanity during the country’s Liberation War in 1971.
Jamaat in a press release published on its website on Tuesday made the announcement of the hartal from 6:00 a.m. (local time) to 5:30 p.m. (local time) on Wednesday and Thursday, also demanding release of its leaders.
The announcement of the hartal was made shortly after Bangladesh’s war crimes tribunal has sentenced Jamaat Assistant Secretary General ATM Azharul Islam to death for war crimes during the country’s Liberation War in 1971.
Apart from Kaiser and Islam, a number of leaders of ex-Prime Minister Khaleda Zia’s Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and Jamaat is also facing war criems trials.
Jamaat chief Motiur Rahman Nizami last month challenged the death penalty awarded to him by a war crimes.
Bangladesh on Dec. 12 last year executed Jamaat leader Abdul Quader Molla, convicted of war crimes in 1971.
Both BNP and Jamaat have dismissed the court as a government “show trial” and said it is a domestic set-up without the oversight or involvement of the United Nations. Enditem