Protests of War Crimes in Bangladesh

In this article, two people died Thursday from the result of clashes between the police and religious party activists during the protests over the war crime trials. The crimes include genocide and rape that were committed during the 1971 war of independence against Pakistan. The protestors are demanding for the trials of Jamaat-e-Islami party leaders to stop. Nine people have died now in result of the political violence. They are mostly Jamaat supporters and some have died from being shot since the protests started last month.

One victim of the protests includes a lift operator of a state bank. He suffered from head injuries, after he was beaten by supporters of Jamaat as clashes broke out between police and protestors in Dhaka’s main commercial area. The entire leadership of Jamaat including the chief and deputy chief and two senior officials of the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party have been tried by the country’s secular government. They say “the trials are needed to heal the wounds of the nine-month war in which three million people were killed, many by pro-Pakistani militia whose members allegedly included Jamaat officials.” A senior Jamaat leader was recently sentenced to life last week for mass murder.

After reading the article, the genocides and rapes are global social problems. They have harmed many people, as mentioned in the article around three million people were killed. So the trials must occur to serve justice for those people killed. The issue is the protests and how innocent people are dying because of them. There needs to be stricter laws against the protestors and there needs to be more arrests by the police. The government should help train the police on how to handle the protestors in a more effective manner. 

02/15/2013
4:27pm

http://dawn.com/2013/02/14/two-dead-in-bangladesh-protests-over-war-crime-trials/