Defying Jamaat's strike

Shops and business establishments will remain open and public transport will operate normally during a nationwide strike called by the Jamaat-e-Islami on Monday, associations said.

Defying Jamaat's strike Dhaka Metropolitan Shop Owners Association and its parent Bangladesh Shop Owners Association decided to keep all shops open during the strike after a meeting held at Alpana Plaza on Dhaka's Elephant Road.

“We will defy the illogical shutdown… All shops will remain open tomorrow throughout Bangladesh,” said the Association’s General Secretary SA Kader Kiron.

“All other shop associations have been informed,” he said.

Calls were made from Shahbagh to defy the Jamaat sponsored shutdown for Monday. The protestors there appeared charged up over the death of blogger Rajib Haider, who has been at the forefront of the Shahbagh protests from its inception.

Kiron ruled out security fears for the shops and business establishments who may be attacked for defying the strike call.

“We are good enough to resist the Jamaat-Shibir combine . Instead we will tell our customers… come to the markets, the authorities will take care of your security.”

Bangladesh Road Transport Association General Secretary Khandaker Enayetullah said they had also decided to operate normally all forms of public transport throughout Bangladesh.

Shop owners association had expressed anger in the killing of blogger and architect Rajib Haider. They demanded quick arrest of the killers while expressing solidarity with the Shahbagh protests.

They also urged to rename Shahbagh ‘Rajib Chattar’.Bdnews24

Express solidarity with the protesters in Bangladesh who are seeking justice for the war crimes of 1971.

we petition the Obama administration to:

Express solidarity with the protesters in Bangladesh who are seeking justice for the war crimes of 1971.

In 1971, the Pakistani Army, in collaboration with a group of Islamist leaders, unleashed unbelievable horrors on an unarmed, civilian population killing 3 million people and raping more than 200,000 women. Today, as Bangladesh is finally seeking justice for these mass killings, religious extremist groups throughout the world are conspiring against Bangladesh. The government of Bangladesh has already received veiled threats from the President of Turkey, and "The Muslim Brotherhood" has issued a strongly-worded press release in support of these war criminals. We urge President Barack Obama and this administration to express solidarity with the millions of Bangladeshis who are spontaneously demanding justice and an end to communal politics.

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Second migration & third Viva at 19Feb: Jagannath University

`B’ unit second migration list has been published. The examinees selected for migration have to complete their migration within 18Feb.

3^rd Viva will hold at 19Feb of the student selected in primary selection of`B’ unit session 2012-13 Humanity (1601-2000) Science (451-550).

Here for available seats 4^th migration of `D’ unit and quota 1^st migration will hold at 19Feb. The students who did not get their wanted subjects are also allowed. Under this unit 4^th viva of students in humanities (871-885), Science (401-440) will hold the same day.

NB: If the viva do not hold at 19Feb, it will hold the next day 20Feb.

Candle of hope lit across Bangladesh

Life stopped in its tracks as millions of people across Bangladesh held a candlelight vigil from wherever they could on Thursday in an extraordinary show of support for the Shahbagh movement.

The protesters converged on the heart of the capital announced a ‘Jagaran Samabesh’, or Uprising Rally, for Friday, to roll out the next agitation programmes to press for execution of all war criminals, including Jamaat-e-Islami leader Abdul Quader Molla.

People – irrespective of age, sex and class – poured out of their offices and homes in droves with candles in hand as the time for the vigil at 7pm approached.

The solidarity gesture – in an echo of the three-minute silence of Tuesday – reinforced the massive public support to the Shabagh protest that continued for the 10th consecutive day, in an unmistakeable sign of renewed Bengali nationalism.

At the Shahbagh intersection, the heart of the protest now christened ‘Prajanma Chattar’, tens of thousands of people sang: ‘Muktiro Mandiro Sopano Tole, Koto Pran Holo Bolidan, Lekha Aachhe Oshru Jole.”

The Members of Parliament led by Deputy Speaker Shawkat Ali joined the vigil in the parliament complex. Parliament employees and journalists on duty there also observed the programme.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and her granddaughter lit a candle inside the Ganabhaban, her official residence. Bdnews24(Abridgement)

 

The Female Factor: Bangladesh Protests Break Boundaries

 

It is over a week now that crowds refuse to die down in Shahbagh Square in the heart of Dhaka, Bangladesh.

While most of the “western media” has either ignored the swelling numbers of ordinary Bangladeshis joining the movement, others have wrongly labeled it as a mass demand for capital punishment.

This is perhaps the biggest misconception about what is happening in Bangladesh right now, that these historic protests are somehow a stamp of the public’s thirst just for capital punishment. Could anything be more incorrect or insulting?

Earlier this week, I wrote about how Bangladeshis joined in rare solidarity to demand the death penalty for the leader of the country’s largest Islamic party, Jamaat-e-Islami, well-known war-criminal, Abdul Quader Mollah. His sentencing to life in prison triggered Bangladeshis to put aside their political differences, and unite against Mollah.

Why were so many people coming out in droves in Dhaka, gathering in this square in peaceful protests, holding signs of the hangman’s knot? The scary slogans made the people holding them look like savages, instead of the man pictured, who Bangladeshis believe escaped the real sentencing he deserved.

What we are seeing in Bangladesh right now is not about capital punishment. The world needs to understand that. It is wrongly labeling all Bangladeshis as bloodthirsty people. I do not support capital punishment and yes, we all know the War Crimes Tribunal in Bangladesh is heavily flawed. It even has been accused of being nothing but a political tool for Prime Minister, Sheikh Hasina.

But the Shahbagh movement goes beyond both these points. I resent people dismissing this as a movement for capital punishment when what is happening in Bangladesh right now is much more complex. Why is the fate of Shahbagh linked to the destiny of every single Bangladeshi? Bangladeshi writer, Tahmima Anam explains:

…The call for Mollah’s death is about more than revenge. He committed his crimes during Bangladesh’s nine-month struggle for independence from Pakistan in 1971. In addition to the perceived inadequacy of the sentence is an abiding anxiety about the way it will be carried out. It is ingrained in the public imagination that justice always takes second place to political expediency. Mollah knows that if his party or its allies were to come to power again, he would almost certainly be freed. That is why the protesters at Shahbag are calling for his death: it is the only way they can be sure the episode will come to an end.

In my life, I have never seen an on-going protest of this magnitude in Bangladesh ever that was not partisan. I have never witnessed people spill onto the streets for anything not somehow related to Awami League or Bangladesh National Party-led demonstrations or strikes.

The non-partisan nature of Shahbagh is not the only thing that makes it different, but the role technology is playing is revolutionary as well. It was Bangladeshi online activists and bloggers who first protested Mollah’s verdict, demanding the death sentence. They used social media to spread the word, and staged sit-ins. The “Shahbagh” Facebook page has over 6,000 Likes, and is being used as a weapon of  ”cyber war against war crimes.”

The participation of youth and women also make Shahbagh unique. The protests’ female factor- students, wives, working professionals, activists, and mothers with their children all gave their voice to the Shahbag protests.

I find this electrifying. Although Bangladeshi women play a huge role in our country’s government and civil society, they also played a huge role in the 1971 Liberation War, not only as fighters and supporters of the war, but as the people who perhaps paid the greatest price as Bangladesh seceded from then West Pakistan.

Many academics state that the first time rape was consciously applied as a weapon of war was during the Bangladesh War of Independence, and although the official numbers of the women raped are 200-250,000 many experts put that number closer to 400,000 women and girls who were raped, mass-raped, imprisoned for months in notorious rape-camps.

I t is only fitting that today, almost forty-three years after Independence, that the mothers, daughters and sisters of our martyrs make sure the memory and spirit of those who freed Bangladesh is honored. They are organizing in the streets with their children, because at the end of the day, as Egyptian feminist author Mona Eltahawy states, what revolution worth anything did not have “gender nestled in its beating heart”?

Will Shahbagh succeed or will it fade? Will it bloom like the water lotus, or wither with time? One thing is for sure, the nation’s largest movement in twenty years has already changed the political  landscape of Bangladesh forever. Forbes

Grand-rally again at Shahbagh Friday

 

DHAKA: Another grand-rally will be held at city’s Shahbagh intersection at 3:00pm on Friday as a part of ongoing protest demanding death penalty to all war criminals.

The announcement came from the candlelit programme at 7:00pm Thursday, paying tribute to them who were killed during the Liberation War by Jamaat-Shibir after the war.

Millions of people form all walks of life across the country including, ‘Prajanmo Chattar, Shahbagh’ lit candles raising voice demanding death penalty to all war criminals.

The journalists and officials of East-West Media Group also observed candlelit programme in front of Media House at city’s Bashundhara Residential area. 

On Wednesday, the organizers of Shahbagh protest urged all to light a candle from their respective location in home and abroad to showcase power of enlightened Bangladesh in similar to that the world has seen the power of silence on Tuesday.

Earlier on Tuesday, millions of people observed a three-minute silence across the country to express solidarity with the demand of death penalty for all war criminals.

Everyday students, professionals, rickshaw pullers, workers, farmers  came to Shahbagh intersection to lend their support to mass protest that started on February 10 demanding death penalty of war criminals.

Thousands of people from different ages, religions and profession   under the banner of ‘Bloggers and Online Activist Network’ continue demonstration and showing their dissatisfaction for the tenth straight day against the verdict of International Crimes Tribunal as it is inconsistent with public expectation with chanting different slogans and rendering patriotic and protest songs.banglanews24.com

Orientation Class of BBA Programme 2012-2013

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