AL hails it, Jamaat calls shutdown

The ruling Awami League hailed the Supreme Court verdict that upheld death penalty for war criminal Mir Quasem Ali, a Jamaat leader.

The BNP remained close-mouthed as they had been before, following the verdicts of other war criminals.

Mir Quasem's party, Jamaat-e-Islami, on the other hand, has called a dawn-to-dusk countrywide hartal for today, in protest at the verdict of the Supreme Court.

Jamaat's acting Secretary General Dr Shafiqur Rahman declared the strike -- to commence at 6:00am -- in a statement posted on the party's website yesterday, soon after the judgment was delivered by the SC.

The statement claimed that Quasem has been a victim of the government's "conspiracy" and he has been "deprived of justice". 

Ambulance, fire service, hospital vehicles, the press and other emergency services have been left out of the purview of the hartal in the statement.

Awami League presidium member and Health Minister Mohammed Nasim, while talking with reporters at Dhanmondi office of the party's president, hailed the verdict saying that people's expectations have been fulfilled through the verdict.

Commenting on Jamaat's call for hartal, Nasim said Jamaat is a political party of war criminals, hated by the people, and thus the people would not respond to such call.

Liberation War Affairs Minister AKM Mozammel Huq expressed satisfaction over the apex court's verdict while he was speaking at a programme held at National Press Club.

He also said all properties belonging to war criminals will be confiscated and used for the the welfare of freedom fighters and the politics of Jamaat will be banned as well.