Bangladeshi expats demand justice for atrocities in 1971
Three million slain, million raped in war of independence: organizers
Members of Ottawa’s Bangladeshi community gathered Sunday to renew calls for justice more than 40 years after atrocities committed during the South Asian country’s war of independence.
The event was one of many held around the world to reaffirm a demand for justice and the maximum punishment of suspects currently on trial for war crimes that led to three million deaths and nearly one million rapes of women during the nine-month war, organizers said.
“We want to make a strong statement to demand punishment for war criminals,” said Hasan Mahmud Tipu, a Carleton University student who helped organize the Ottawa event.
Similar gatherings were held Sunday in Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto and more than three dozen cities in 11 countries, he said.
Tuesday marks independence day in Bangladesh.
The Shahbag Abroad movement is named after the Shahbag intersection in Dhaka, the Bangladeshi capital, where a spontaneous crowd of thousands of people gathered on Feb. 5 to demand justice for 1971 war crimes.
This was triggered by a perceived lenient sentence of war criminal Quader Mollah, who was convicted of killing more than 300 people.
The protesters demands include maximum punishment for convicted 1971 war criminals in the ongoing trial, and a ban on the radical Islamic party Jamaat-e-Islami, which has harboured most of the 1971 war crime suspects currently on trial and refuses to apologize for its collaboration with the 1971 occupying Pakistani army.
Comparing Shahbag to Egypt’s renowned Tahrir Square, Abeer Reza says the current movement is a reaffirmation that many Bangladeshi people want to see their country realize the dream of many to become secular and progressive.
“This is the younger generation saying, ‘Enough is enough,’ ” he said.
The protests at Shahbag Square in Bangladesh struck a chord with Bangladeshis abroad.
Now, expatriate Bangladeshis across the globe are communicating via social media and other means to form a virtual platform called Shahbag Abroad.
Sunday’s event included documentary screenings, a children’s art competition, and the playing of Bangladesh’s national anthem and other patriotic songs.