Great: In Bangladesh, demands grow for execution of man convicted of war crimes during 1971 conflict

For many in Bangladesh, the "V'' for victory sign was more than they could bear.

Great: In Bangladesh, demands grow for execution of man convicted of war crimes during 1971 conflict 28e87c52ad7da505290f6a7

They had waited more than four decades for justice in the mass killings and rapes during their independence war. But there was a smiling Abdul Quader Mollah apparently celebrating his life sentence — given in place of an expected death sentence — for his role in the killing of 381 civilians.

Within hours, thousands of university students demanding his death poured into the streets of Dhaka, the seeds of what has grown into a mass protest that has exposed again the unhealed wounds from the nation's 1971 war for independence from Pakistan.

"I could not take it. That was really insulting," Gazi Nasiruddin Khokon, a protester who works for an online newspaper, said of Mollah's victorious gesture after his sentencing last week. "If we don't get proper justice for such crimes, where would we stand in the future?"

Mollah was convicted by a special war crimes tribunal that was set up to hold people accountable for the first time for their roles in the civil war, where Bangladesh says as many as 3 million people were killed and 200,000 women raped by Pakistani troops and local collaborators.

But the trials are also seen as part of a long and bitter rivalry between Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and the main opposition leader, former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia, who is allied with the Islamic party Jamaat-e-Islami, many of whose leaders face charges before the tribunal.

Jamaat, which opposed Bangladesh's fight for independence, and Zia have called the tribunal politically motivated, while international rights groups have raised questions about the conduct of the trials. The head of one of the tribunals resigned in December over reports he had improper conversations with a lawyer about the panel.

Mollah, an assistant secretary of Jamaat, was found guilty Feb. 5 of killing a student and a family of 11 and of aiding Pakistani troops in killing 369 others. Members of his party took to the streets in anger at his conviction, exploding homemade bombs and clashing with police.

But they were soon overshadowed by thousands of protesters who flooded a major intersection in the capital, Dhaka, upset at what they said was a lenient verdict and inflamed by the image of Mollah smiling at journalists and holding up two fingers in a "V'' sign as he left the court.

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2013/02/16/in-bangladesh-demands-grow-for-execution-man-convicted-war-crimes-during-171/

Great: In Bangladesh, demands grow for execution of man convicted of war crimes during 1971 conflict

Great: In Bangladesh, demands grow for execution of man convicted of war crimes during 1971 conflict

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