Youth are responsible for revolution in many countries in different parts of the world. Similarly thousands of youth in Bangladesh sit down on streets and refuse to move until their demands for the capital punishment of War Criminals are met with.

The sit-in started on Tuesday afternoon, in response to the verdict of life imprisonment for Jamaat leader Abdul Quader Mollah, who was a war criminal during the Liberation War of Bangladesh from Pakistan in 1971, and the demonstration lasted throughout the night. The whole sit-in was organized  by bloggers and social network activists.

The spirit of this non-violent protest spread throughout the whole country with sit-ins and demonstrations taking place in Chittagong, Sylhet, Rajshahi, Rangpur, Sunamganj, Barisal, Rajbari, Noakhali and Narsingdi. It seemed as though 42 years later nostalgia had rekindled emotions of war, and hatred towards the war criminals of 1971.

This small movement started mainly by students with no politcal involvement at first, was later joined by political parties, freedom fighters, war veterans, senior citizens and other eminent personalities of Bangladesh. However the organizers of the sit-in have decided to not let any political leaders address the protest, in order to keep it neutral.

The protest is taking place in the capital’s Shahbagh area,which is a key point in the capital, adjacent to Dhaka University, National Museum, Suhrawardy Udyan, Central Shaheed Minar and Bangla Academy, which has a historical significance to the people for its link with the birth of the nation and the people’s struggle.

The organizers are keeping the entire protest non-violent, and as can be seen for the last three days, there has been motivational speeches, patriotic songs, street plays and art, and anti-war criminal chants and slogans. A lot of creativity has been put into the demonstration, as protestants have portrayed their vexation over the ruling by transforming their bodies into banners and posters, paper and waste products into effigies, wooden sticks into a symbolic cage and the streets into canvases.

At this very moment the crowd is no longer limited to just students. Children, housewives, laborers and people from all classes and castes have come together merely as citizens of Bangladesh who were not happy about the ruling. People are also signing petitions demanding to see Quader Mollah executed in the gallows. Different organizations such as the Sector Commanders’ Forum, Sammilito Sangskritik Jote, Sammilito Krira Poribar, Workers’ Party of Bangladesh, Communist Party of Bangladesh, Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal, Bangladesh Samajtantrik Dal and Gonotantrik Bam Morcha have expressed solidarity with the organizers of this movement.

The government Awami League, has also lauded this movement in the parliament, and has expressed its support to the organizers of this protest.

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A Bangladeshi labor rights activist and former apparel worker was tortured and murdered last week in Dhaka. His body was dumped outside of the capital city and was found by local police last Thursday. According to the police report, Aminul Islam’s body bore signs of brutal torture.

Aminul’s family, who had been searching for him since he disappeared last Wednesday, identified him on Saturday from photos appearing in local newspapers. Labor rights organizations in Bangladesh and the United States believe the killing is associated with Aminul’s work on behalf of apparel workers who sew garments for suppliers to major U.S. retailers and brands

Aminul had worked for several years as a labor rights organizer and advocate. His organization is among the most prominent labor rights groups in the country. Levi Strauss called BCWS “a globally respected labor rights organization that has played a vital role in documenting and working to remedy labor violations in the apparel industry in Bangladesh.”

The Bangladeshi Center for Worker Solidarity (BCWS) was featured in a recent ABC TV News story (http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/workers-die-factories-tommy-hilfiger/story?id=15966305) exposing the relationship of U.S. brands to a sweatshop factory fire in Dhaka that killed twenty-nine workers last year, and describing the repression of labor rights advocates.

BCWS and its staff have been the target of a campaign of harassment by the Bangladeshi government and apparel factory owners for two years. The organization’s license to operate was revoked and Aminul and two of his colleagues were jailed in 2010. Their release was secured only after international pressure.

Aminul had disappeared Wednesday evening on his way to meet a worker who had called him seeking assistance. Aminul’s family and friends searched for him until Saturday, when his wife recognized a photograph of his body, published in a local newspaper.

Aminul had been detained by officials of the National Intelligence Service (NSI) in June 2010. According to Aminul, he was subjected to severe and repeated beatings, which his captors said would stop only if he agreed to give false testimony against his colleagues at BCWS.

The NSI officials demanded that he write a letter stating that his colleagues were the instigators of recent worker protests, which had resulted in damage to some factory buildings. Aminul refused. While being transported to another location, he managed to escape his captors and went into hiding.

Later that year, Aminul and two colleagues, Kalpona Akhter and Babul Akter, were arrested and jailed on charges of fomenting riots and related acts – charges regarded as baseless by international labor and human rights organizations. They were released only after substantial international pressure on the Bangladesh government and they still face trials.

On Wednesday of last week, after working during the day at BCWS’s office in Savar, Aminul went to evening prayers. While there, he noticed a police van parked outside. Fearing harassment or arrest he called a colleague to say that they should close the BCWS office for the day.

Aminul then returned to his home. Later in the evening, he received a call from a worker urgently seeking assistance. He left home to meet the worker and was never heard from again. Labor rights organizations in the U.S. and Bangladesh are calling for a full investigation of the murder and for those responsible to be brought to justice.

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