Bangladeshi students of the city expressed their solidarity with the uprising at the Shahbag Square in Dhaka. They extended their unconditional support to the people’s movement back home.
Started by bloggers, the uprising in Shahbag Square gained momentum over the past three weeks on the lenient punishment extended to the 1971 war criminals.
Tahmid Sharief, a postgraduate student of St Joseph’s College of Arts and Science, said the mass movement is by youngsters demanding that war criminals be punished severely.
For nine months in 1971, three million people were killed and more than one lakh women were raped and murdered. Mere life imprisonment is not just and the war criminals must be hanged, Sharief said.
Shubhjit, a BBM student, said, “We are not able to go to Dhaka right now and it is not possible as we are studying. We want capital punishment for the criminals and want the whole world to know the kind of neglect that has been kept alive for so many decades. We are with Bangladesh and we extend support and solidarity to the movement in Shahbag Square.”
It is a shame that for 42 years, these war criminals have been left loose, echoed Mrittika Wahid, a BCom student of Bishop Cotton Women’s Christian College. “The punishment is not sufficient for such criminals who have devastated the country. We want the Bangladesh government to award them death sentence,” Wahid added.
Refuting the religious hue to the protest, Shazzad Hussain Mukit, a BSc student, said Bangladesh is a country born out of culture and fundamentalist are out to destroy the image.
Everyone has a connection with the 1971 catastrophe, he added.
“If there is a need, we will not hesitate to go back to Dhaka to support the uprising,” said Sharukh Rahman, another student.