Bangladesh's #Shahbag Protests

Shahbag= crowd praying blogger Rajiv's janaza. Image by Mohammad Asad. Copyright Demotix (16/2/2013)

#Shahbag Protests 16 February, 2013. Image by Mohammad Asad. Copyright Demotix

This moment has been in the making for decades. Hundreds of thousands are occupying Shahbag, an intersection in the heart of Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, demanding death penalty for war crimes committed during Bangladesh's liberation from Pakistan in 1971.

On 5 February 2013, the Bloggers and Online Activists Network (BOAN) initiated the call to occupy Shahbag and demand capital punishment for the secretary general of the Islamist party Jamaat-e-Islami Abdul Quader Mollah, hours after he was sentenced to life in prison on 344 counts of murder, rape and torture committed during 1971.

Since then, the demands for death penalty have extended to all war criminals facing trial and protests have spread like wildfire across the country.

Like Mollah, some other indicted war criminals have held public office and were living a life of impunity in Bangladesh for decades until 2010, when proceedings were initiated against them by the International Crimes Tribunal (ICT).

Our #Shahbag Coverage

14 Dec: Bangladesh Executes Islamist Leader Abdul Quader Mollah for War Crimes

4 Dec: ‘How Many Burning Bodies Will Satisfy Them?': Political Violence in Bangladesh

6 Aug: Bangladesh Court Disqualifies Jamaat-e-Islami Party from Elections

28 Jul: Bangladeshi Blogger Writes About Prison Experience

4 May: Islamists Demand that Bangladesh's Women Stay at Home

5 Apr: Protests Against Arrest of Bloggers Charged with Blasphemy in Bangladesh

1 Apr: Bangladesh Authorities Go After Bloggers, Claim They Are ‘Anti-Muslim’ 

16 Mar: Revenge Attacks Target Bangladesh Hindus for Islamist Leader's Death Sentence

5 Mar: Violence Flares in Bangladesh Over Islamist Leader's Death Sentence

1 Mar: #Shahbag Protesters Fight off Atheist Shadow Cast by Islamist Groups

1 Mar: Religion Warps Politics as Bangladesh War Crimes Protests Continue

27 Feb: What India Can Learn From #Shahbag

19 Feb: Videos from #Shahbag, Bangladesh's Generation Square

18 Feb: #Shahbag Protesters Bid Farewell to Brutally Murdered Blogger

16 Feb: Bangladeshi Artists Capture Shahbag Protests in Cartoons

15 Feb: #Shahbag Blogger Hacked To Death

14 Feb: Bangladesh Unites at Shahbag for 42-Year-Old War Crimes

11 Feb: Bangladeshi Women Join Shahbag Protests in Remarkable Numbers

10 Feb: In Pictures: The Protesting Crowd In Shahbag

10 Feb: #Shahbag in a 140 Characters

8 Feb:  Bangladesh: All Roads Lead To Shahbagh

7 Feb: Bangladesh: Protesters Demand Capital Punishment for 1971 War Criminals

10 Dec 2012: ‘The Economist’ Accused of Hacking by Bangladesh's War Crimes Tribunal

Global Voices Advocacy posts

18 Sep: Bangladesh's ICT Act Stoops to New Lows

6 Apr: Bangladesh: Global Voices Condemns Assault on Bloggers

3 Apr: Netizen Report: Bloggers Under Threat in Bangladesh and Beyond

2 Apr: Accused of Blasphemy, Three Bloggers Detained in Bangladesh

Resources

Twitter
Hashtags: #Shahbag | #Shahbagh
Follow: @Shahbaginfo | @Shahbagorg

Shahbag: An Ocean in the Making from Mehdi Hasan Khan on Vimeo.

Please contact Global Voices South Asia and Bangla Translation Manager Rezwan, if you have links or story ideas, or want to add to this page's resource list.