30 killed after Islamist ordered hanging
2013-02-28 20:49
Dhaka - At least 30 people were killed in Bangladesh in a
wave of violence on Thursday as Islamists reacted furiously to a ruling that
one of their leaders must hang for war crimes during the 1971 independence
conflict.
At least 22 of them were shot in clashes between police
and protesters that erupted after Delwar Hossain Sayedee, the Jamaat-e-Islami
party's vice president, was found guilty of war crimes, including murder, arson
and rape.
Sayedee is the third person to be convicted by the
controversial domestic tribunal whose previous verdicts have also been met with
outrage from Islamists who say the process is more about score settling than
delivering justice.
Thursday's death toll was compiled by AFP after talking
to police in the 13 districts where protests turned deadly.
The latest clashes brought the overall death toll to 46
since the first verdict was delivered on 21 January.
Among Thursday's dead were four policemen, two of whom
were beaten to death after thousands of protestors hurled small homemade bombs
at a police station in Gaibandha in Bangladesh's north and attacked it with
sticks, local police chief Monjur Rahman told AFP.
"At least 10 000 Jamaat supporters attacked us. We
were forced to open fire," Rahman said.
About 300 people, including scores of policemen, were
also injured, doctors, police and local media said.
Police also reported attacks on several Hindu homes and
temples by Islamists in the southern Noakhali district.
Security forces had been braced for trouble ahead of the
verdict against Sayedee, who reacted to the judgment by saying it had been
influenced by "atheists" and pro-government protesters who have been
demanding his execution.
Firebrand preacher
Sayedee, now best known in Bangladesh as a firebrand
preacher, was convicted for setting ablaze 25 houses in a Hindu village and
abetting the murders of two people including a Hindu man, according to a copy
of the verdict.
He led a pro-Pakistani militia who abducted three Hindu
sisters and raped them for three days at a Pakistani camp.
He also forced at least 100 Hindus to convert to Islam
and made them say Islamic prayers.
His lawyer Tajul Islam described the verdict as "a
gross miscarriage of justice", adding that Sayedee did not live in the
town at the time when the alleged crimes took place.
"It's a case of mistaken identity. We're stunned.
We're going to appeal the verdict," he told AFP.
Under a newly amended war crimes law, the appeal process
must be completed within 90 days, meaning Sayedee would be hanged later this
year if the country's highest court upholds the verdict.
Protesters at a central Dhaka intersection erupted in
jubilation as news of Sayedee's sentence filtered through.
"We've been waiting for this day for the last four
decades," a protester told Somoy TV.
There was no immediate reaction from Jamaat to the
verdict, but the party has enforced a nationwide strike demanding a halt to the
trials. The cases against eight more Jamaat leaders are still being heard.
Life imprisonment
Earlier this month, the tribunal - a local court with no
international oversight - sentenced Jamaat's assistant secretary general Abdul
Quader Molla to life imprisonment.
While angering Jamaat supporters, that verdict also
enraged secular protesters, tens of thousands of whom have since poured onto
the Shahbag intersection in central Dhaka to demand the execution of Jamaat
leaders.
In January the tribunal handed down its first verdict
when it sentenced fugitive Muslim TV preacher Maolana Abul Kalam Azad to death.
The tribunal has been tainted by controversies and
allegations that it is targeting only the opposition with trumped-up charges.
Rights groups say its legal procedures fall short of international standards.
The government rejects the accusations, saying the trials
are needed to heal the wounds of the war that it says killed three million
people.
It accuses Jamaat leaders of being part of pro-Pakistani
militias blamed for much of the 1971 carnage.
The government says three million were killed but
independent estimates put the figure much lower, between 300 000 and 500 000.
