Bangladesh on alert after top Jamaat leader’s execution
13 April 2015 11:42 PM GMT
Bangladesh was on Sunday put on alert fearing a possible backlash to the execution of top Jamaat-e- Islami leader Muhammad Quamaruzzaman for 1971 war crimes as thousands of people took to streets to applaud the move, amid fundamentalists’ call for a nationwide protest strike.
Quamaruzzaman, the 63-year-old Jamaat-e-Islami assistant secretary general and its third most influential leader, was buried at his ancestral home in northern Sherpur after his execution late last night for committing war crimes and mass killing during Bangladesh’s 1971 independence war against Pakistan when he sided with Pakistani troops.
“He was buried at his village home at Kumri Mudipara at about 5:10 in the morning (local time) while people at the neighbourhood joined the namaz-e-janaza (funeral prayers) ahead of the burial,” a police official at the scene said.
Quamaruzzaman is the second leader of the fundamentalist Islamist party to be executed for the 1971 offences after Abdul Quader Mollah, known as the butcher of Mirpur, met a similar fate on December 12, 2013.
Nine vehicles of paramilitary Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) force, elite anti-crime Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) and police escorted an ambulance which carried his body to the village even as the execution met with an angry reaction from his party which called for a nationwide protest strike tomorrow and a mass prayer on Sunday.
The BGB was deployed across the country to control protests and prevent any untoward incident. Sporadic violence was reported so far, with activists vandalising at least two buses and exploding two crude bombs at Sobhanbagh here around noon during a rally to protest the execution, police said.
Meanwhile, victory marches were staged at major cities and towns across the country calling for the completion of other war crimes cases as a large number of demonstrators offered sweetmeats to each other to welcome the execution.
BNP protests cause $2-bn loss in three months
Bangladesh has incurred a loss of more than $2 billion in the first three months this year due to the political turmoil triggered by anti-government protests, a World Bank report said on Sunday.
The Bangladesh Development Update Report 2015, unveiled by the multilateral lending agency at its Dhaka office, said Bangladesh suffered a loss of about $2.2 billion (nearly Tk 17,150 crore) due to the political unrest.
“The country incurred the financial lost due to political stalemate in Bangladesh,” World Bank’s Chief Economist Zahid Hossain said.
Bangladesh faced huge financial loss in January, February and March this year, Zahid said, apparently referring to the deadly protests launched by the main opposition BNP. He added that the three months were dry season, and the loss incurred was huge as it was the peak time for production, the Dailystar online reported.
In the past three months, Bangladesh has witnessed deadly protests spread across the country by Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and its rightwing allies. More than 100 people have died in the protests. They enforced a nationwide blockade since January 6, coinciding with the first anniversary of the controversial January 5 elections it had boycotted, virtually giving a walkover to the ruling Awami League led by Sheikh Hasina.
Hasina’s arch rival and BNP chief Khaleda Zia demands mideterm elections under a neutral caretaker government ahead of the one scheduled for 2019.
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