‘Arrest the atheists who insulted Islam!’ Tens of thousands of Muslim activists hold prayers on streets of Bangladesh capital to call for new blasphemy laws against bloggers
Worldwide, Daily news | ankakh | March 30, 2013 21:05
Tens of thousands of Islamic activists prayed on the streets of the Bangladeshi capital today during a rally calling for the introduction of blaspemy laws and the restoration of a caretaker government.
Members of the Islami Andolan Bangladesh are demanding the arrest of ‘atheist bloggers who insulted Islam’ and to pass laws punishing those who ‘insulted Islam in the parliament’.
They have announced plans to ‘lay siege’ to the office of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on April 25 if their demands are not met.
Meanwhile, clashes between police and supporters of the country’s biggest Islamic party left five dead on Friday during protests linked to ongoing war crimes trials, police and media said.
Jamaat-e-Islami activists have been staging countrywide strikes and rallies for months to protest against the trials which have placed nearly their entire party leadership in the dock, in cases dating back to the 1971 independence war.
Friday’s first incident occurred when lawmakers entered a village in northwestern Chapainawabganj district to arrest party activists accused of torching a power plant in such a protest last month.
About 6,000 villagers gathered to try and prevent the arrests, leading police to open fire.
Local media reports quoted villagers saying three Jamaat supporters were killed, two on the spot and one on the way to hospital.
With the latest deaths, 94 people have now been killed in clashes linked to the trials since the war crimes court handed down the first of its verdicts in January over atrocities during Bangladesh’s independence struggle from Pakistan.
The government says the trials are needed to heal the wounds of the 1971 war in which it says three million people were killed and 200,000 women raped.
Independent estimates put the death toll between 300,000 and 500,000.
Facebook
Tweet This
RSS Feed
Email This Post
Loading ...
