2013 Shahbag protests

2013 Shahbag Protests
2013 Shahbag Protests
Part of Trial for Bangladesh genocide from Bangladesh Liberation War
	Demonstrators in Shahbag in February 2013
Date	5 February 2013 – 6 March 2013
Location	Bangladesh (began at Shahbagh Square, Dhaka); 23°44′18″N 90°23′45″E
Goals	Capital punishment for those convicted of war crimes during the Bangladesh Liberation War by the ICT; Ban of Jamaat-e-Islami from politics; Boycott of Jamaat institutions;
Methods	Civil resistance; Demonstrations; Online activism;
Resulted in	Government passed a new act to swiftly execute the verdict of war criminals,; 5 Jamaat and 1 BNP leader were executed,; Emerging of Hifazat-e-Islam Bangladesh; Bangladesh Supreme Court postponed the registration of the Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami political party making them unfit to contest the general elections; Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami went underground;
Parties
Directly Bangladesh Online Activist Network; Leftist progressive Student Alliance Bangladesh Students Union; Socialist Students' Front; Revolutionary Students Unity of Bangladesh; ; Awami League Bangladesh Chhatra League; Bangladesh Awami Jubo League; ; Sammilito Sangskritik Jote; Indirectly Grand Alliance (Bangladesh); Communist Party of Bangladesh;	Directly Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh Islami Chhatra Shibir; ; Hefazat-e-Islam Bangladesh; Indirectly Bangladesh Nationalist Party; Jatiya Party (Ershad); 18 Party Alliance;
Lead figures
	Imran H Sarkar; Luckey Akter; Nasiruddin Yousuff; Muhammed Zafar Iqbal; Shah Ahmad Shafi; Junaid Babunagari; Mahmudur Rahman;
Casualties
Death(s)	60

On 5 February 2013, protests ignited in Shahbagh, Bangladesh, fueled by the call for the execution of the convicted war criminal and Islamist Abdul Quader Mollah. Previously sentenced to life imprisonment, Mollah was convicted on five of six counts of war crimes by the International Crimes Tribunal of Bangladesh. Mollah supported the West Pakistan during the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War and played a crucial role in the murder of numerous Bengali nationalists and intellectuals. The demonstrations also sought the government's ban on the radical right-wing and conservative-Islamist group, Jamaat-e-Islami from participating in politics, including elections, and a boycott of institutions supporting or affiliated with the group.

Protesters perceived Mollah's sentence as unduly lenient, leading bloggers and online activists to mobilize additional protests at Shahbagh, resulting in heightened participation in the demonstrations. Jamaat orchestrated several counter-protests challenging the tribunal's validity and the protest movement, advocating for the release of those accused and convicted.

On 15 February, blogger and activist Ahmed Rajib Haider was killed outside his house, by members of a far-right terrorist group Ansarullah Bangla Team affiliated with the student wing of Jamaat-e-Islami, leading to widespread condemnation and outrage during the heightened time. On 27 February of the same year, the war tribunal convicted Delwar Hossain Sayeedi, a prominent right-wing fundamental-Islamist, of war crimes against humanity and subsequently sentenced him to death.

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