Topic summary
2013 Shahbag protests
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The 2013 Shahbag protests were widespread demonstrations held in Bangladesh. On 5 February 2013, protests ignited in Shahbag, Bangladesh, fuelled by the call for the execution of the convicted war criminal 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 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 Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami, from participating in politics, including elections, and a boycott of institutions supporting or affiliated with the group.
Protesters perceived Mollah's initial sentence of life imprisonment as unduly lenient, leading bloggers and online activists to mobilize additional protests at Shahbag, 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 an Islamist conservative terrorist group, Ansarullah Bangla Team, 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 fundamental-Islamist, of war crimes against humanity and subsequently sentenced him to death; the sentence was later commuted to life imprisonment.