Even the pit stop in Dhaka is threatened by Jamaat’s hartal tomorrow. I am hoping it will be even more of a flop than previous ones. Those of you who missed the interview in BBC (1:09 into the programme where I talk about Shahbagh). Look out for the oped in New York Times on Friday and the interview on Listening Post in Al Jazeera on Saturday.
Here are some pictures taken on my way back:
It’s a hard life. On the rare occasions when I get bumped up to business class.
My plane waiting at the boarding gate
The courtyard
Sunny afternoon in Salzburg
Tag: Shahbagh
Shahbagh: We rise
Shahbagh online response
By Dr. Christian Prokopp on click Ittefaq
Dr. Christian Prokopp
follow him on twitter@prokopp, Google+ and read his blog
The news is fresh and details are only emerging about the murder of Ahmed Rajib Haider Shuvo, a blogger involved in the Shahbag protest. In today?s world we can view immediately online the outcry this provokes. Last week I wrote about the online echo on Twitter the Shahbag protest had. This time I am taking a snapshot of Twitter just after the news of the murder broke to illustrate how quickly such an event spreads. Continue reading “Shahbagh online response”
The agonies of Bangladesh come to London
Three men stand in Bangladeshi national colours in Shahbag square. Photograph: Kazi Sudipto/ Demotix/Corbis
The Shahbag junction in Dhaka has become Bangladesh‘s Tahrir Square. Hundreds of thousands of young protesters are occupying it and raging against radical Islamists. Even sympathetic politicians cannot control the movement. The protesters damn them as appeasers, who have compromised with unconscionable men. Continue reading “The agonies of Bangladesh come to London”
Shahbag protesters versus the Butcher of Mirpur
?By Tahmina Anam, Guardian
Abdul Quader Mollah has finally been convicted of war crimes committed in Bangladesh in 1971. Now a huge popular protest in Dhaka’s Shahbag district is demanding the death penalty.
The Shahbag protesters resemble a jubilant flash-mob. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images
It all began with a victory sign. When Abdul Quader Mollah, assistant secretary-general of?Bangladesh‘s?Jamaat-e-Islami?party, emerged from the supreme court on the afternoon of Tuesday 4?February, he turned to the press waiting outside, smiled, and made a victory sign. An odd reaction for a man just sentenced to life in prison.
Mollah smiled because for him, a man convicted of beheading a poet, raping an 11-year-old girl and shooting 344 people during the?1971 Bangladesh war of independence?? charges that have earned him the nickname the Butcher of Mirpur ??the life sentence came as a surprise. Earlier this month, a fellow accused, Abul Kalam Azad, who is reputed to have fled to?Pakistan,?was sentenced to death in absentia. Continue reading “Shahbag protesters versus the Butcher of Mirpur”
Mollah smiled because for him, a man convicted of beheading a poet, raping an 11-year-old girl and shooting 344 people during the?1971 Bangladesh war of independence?? charges that have earned him the nickname the Butcher of Mirpur ??the life sentence came as a surprise. Earlier this month, a fellow accused, Abul Kalam Azad, who is reputed to have fled to?Pakistan,?was sentenced to death in absentia. Continue reading “Shahbag protesters versus the Butcher of Mirpur”