One
person has been killed as hundreds of thousands of people continued
protests in Bangladesh demanding that the government should introduce an
anti-blasphemy law that would include the death penalty for bloggers
who insult Islam.
A
local leader of the Awami League, Nowsher Khan, was killed in Bhanga, a
town south west of Dhaka on Saturday, when Hefazat-e-Islami party
supporters clashed with Awami League supporters.
The
protest on Saturday, tagged the “long march”, with many travelling from
remote villages, was sparked after a group of bloggers allegedly began
criticising conservative religious parties that are widely popular
despite Bangladesh’s secular constitution.
Allegedly
backed by Jamaat-e-Islami party, Hefazat-e-Islam, an Islamic group
which draws support from tens of thousands of seminaries, organised the
rally in support of its 13-point demand including enactment of a
blasphemy law to prosecute and hang atheist bloggers.
Dhaka
has been virtually cut off from the rest of the country since Friday
afternoon, after secularists called a 22-hour nationwide strike to
obstruct the march.
Both
secular and Muslim protesters have taken to the streets over the war
crimes trials of leaders of the Jamaat-e-Islami party in cases related
to the 1971 war against Pakistan in which three million people were
killed and many thousands of women were molested.
Abdul
Quader Mollah was sentenced to life in prison in
February spurring youth protests calling for a death sentence for him
instead. This led to counter-protests by religious parties in the
country.
Clashes
erupted days later when well-known protester and blogger, Ahmed Rajib
Haider, was killed, followed by more deaths in ensuing violence.
Speaking
to Al Jazeera, Shakil Ahmed, the head of output for Ekattor television
in Bangladesh, said that the protests on Saturday were peaceful and had
been fuelled by misinformation on both sides.
“Wrong information has been spread out by some of the activists,” said Ahmed.
She
confirmed that protests were peaceful but said that one death had been
reported on Friday night and another on Saturday morning.
An
activist from the ruling Awami League was reportedly shot dead after
the secularists clashed with hundreds of seminary students holding a
rally in support of the march, local police chief Yasir Arafat told AFP
news agency.
“Authorities
have become more and more experienced in dealing with the protests …
Right now they are trying to contain the crowds and are making sure that
it does not get violent.”
The
editor of the Dhaka Tribune, Zafar Sobhan however said that while the
government had maintained a “neutral line” and was “scrambling” to
prevent an “explosive” situation, he thinks it was unlikely that a
blasphemy law would be introduced.
He
said that the march was less about a blasphemy law but was more of a
reaction to calls for the death penalty for political party leaders
being tried for war crimes.
“The
march is more of a, if you [the bloggers] are going to demand the death
penalty against us [the political party leaders, then we are going to
demand a death penalty against you."
Last
week, four online writers were arrested on charges of hurting religious
sentiment through their Internet writings against Islam.
Sobhan said the arrests were being seen as a "heavy-handed measure" to appease Islamists.
Operators of top Bangladeshi blogs blacked out their sites on Thursday to protest against the government move.
They say the government has been kowtowing to the religious activists.
Home
Minister Muhiuddin Khan on Wednesday said the government had identified
11 bloggers, including the four detainees, who had hurt the religious
sentiments of the nation's majority Muslim population.
The
government has blocked about a dozen websites and blogs to stem the
unrest. It has also set up a panel, which includes intelligence chiefs,
to monitor blasphemy on social media.
Under
the country's cyber laws, a blogger or Internet writer can face up to
ten years in jail for defaming a religion. [AlJazeera]
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