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http://bdnews24.com/bangladesh/2013/02/15/shahbagh-protest-nonstop Shahbagh back to 24-hour protest Demonstrators demanding death sentences for all ‘war criminals’ announced that they were reverting to nonstop protests occupying Shahbagh intersection after one of their men was killed in Dhaka on Friday. The announcement came barely six hours after a decision to limit their demonstrations to seven hours every day. Imran H Sarker, one of the initiators of the unprecedented movement, made the announcement around 11pm at the Ganajagaran Mancha after a blogger active in the 11-day long protest was hacked to death near his house. “We’ve been hit. One of our bloggers has been murdered in Mirpur. In this situation, we cannot return from the streets and we won’t,” he said. Ahmed Rajib Haider, 26, an architect who used to blog with the nickname “Thaba Baba (Claw)”, was found dead in Mirpur’s Pallabi in the evening. Haider had been actively taking part in the demonstrations at Shahbagh. The demonstrators demanded authorities arrest the murderers without any delay and punish them. Around 12:30am on Saturday, from the Ganajagaran Mancha Imran Sarker demanded authorities ban the ‘Sonar Bangla’ blog which had been issuing life threats over the past four days and arrest everyone associated with the blog. The protesters have asked everyone to sport black badges on Saturday protesting the murder. They have also announced to hold Haider’s namaz-e-janaza in the afternoon at the intersection. The demonstrators also took a vow to thwart the Jamaat-e-Islami’s countrywide shutdown for Monday. Earlier the day, the protesters announced seven-hour protest rallies every day from Friday’s ‘Jagaran Samabesh’, or the Uprising Rally. However, several organisations campaigning for execution of war crimes perpetrators rejected the seven-hour protest plan saying it was a ‘betrayal’ of the spirit of the movement. They declared to press ahead until the demands were met. The organisations that took the staunch stand are Shahid Janani Jahanara Imam Squad, Tirandaz, Slogan 71 and Theatre Art Unit, Dhaka University Shikkharthhi Odhikar Mancha, Natyabed, Mubiana Film Society, Chhobir Haat and Shahbagh Cyber Judda. Even many of the bloggers, who had initiated the movement, also announced that they will not leave the streets just about now. One of the factors fuelling that determination is the widespread belief that things have simply gone too far to turn back now. Around 10pm, a procession by youths circled Shahbagh and the surrounding areas chanting slogans urging everyone to continue demonstration until Jamaat was banned. The news of Haider’s murder stirred the demonstrators who in slogans pledged to persist with their demonstrations. Sarker then went to the stage and announced round-the-clock demonstration instead of daily seven-hour agitations. The demonstrators observed a minute’s silence in the memory of the deceased online activist. The announcement came after 11 days of round-the-clock demonstrations since Feb 5, when the International Crimes Tribunal-2 sentenced Jamaat leader Abdur Quader Molla to life in prison for crimes against humanity during the War of Liberation in 1971. Meanwhile, around 100 students studying in Sweden’s Lund University and Malmo University paraded the streets expressing solidarity with the Shahbagh movement. They took out a nearly two-and a-half-hour long procession around 3pm local time in the Malmö city braving freezing cold. They also held a candlelight vigil on Thursday. -- Unsubscribe, change to digest, or change password at: https://mailman.stanford.edu/mailman/listinfo/liberationtech
