An aged mother Runi Begum could not hold back her tears while recounting the brutal ordeals descended upon his son in 2014 making an abrupt end to his life.
“My son came to Dhaka to purchase some jackets, as he was crossing the Shahbagh intersection, arsonists of Bangladesh Nationalist Party and Jamaat-e-Islami lobbed petrol bombs and burnt my son to death”, Runi sobbed, with a cry for brining the BNP Jamaat arson attackers to justice.
Also read: No election without Sheikh Hasina : Quader
In 2013, Jahangir Alam, then a superintendent of police, was deployed at an outpost in Rajshahi when a gang of BNP Jamaat activists swooped on the official to make the strike successful as part of the daylong hartal announced by them.
“They thrashed my head with sticks and hurled brick-chips and helmets, leaving me gravely injured,” recounted Jahangir and demanded exemplary punishment for the attackers.
Like Runi and Jahangir, several victims and family members of those burned alive during the grisly spate of arson attacks unleashed by BNP Jamaat recounted the pain they had suffered between 2013 and 2015.
Also read: Fakhrul announces ‘one-point’ demand to oust govt
It was seen as a move to bring down the government and foil the war crimes trial.
Moreover, family members of those freedom fighters-turned-armed forces officers who were executed by BNP founder General Ziaur Rahman in his stint between 1977 and 1981 under the pretext of a “purge off” without even informing their family members and reportedly holding any fair trial were at the rally held in Shaheed Minar on Wednesday.
Under the banner of “Mayer Kanna”, a platform comprising victims of such family members also took part in the protest rally and reiterated their pleas to hold a posthumous trial of General Zia, who also became the first military ruler in the country.
Also read: EU delegation holds meeting with EC on preparations for holding election
In the rally, three generation victims of BNP Jamaat rule, awaiting justice for decades, also drew attention of global human rights bodies to press home their demands to end the culture of impunity enjoyed by the BNP Jamaat “killers”.
They also pointed out the silence of these rights bodies towards their demand for justice, calling these bodies as “biased and one sided defence for the killers”.
Attending the rally, Information and Broadcasting Minister Hasan Mahmud pulled up BNP-Jamaat for introducing the culture of killing innocent people to solidify grip on state power and vowed to bring justice for the victim families.