2013 Shahbag Protest | Hacker News Reader

2013 Shahbag Protest

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17 pointsauvi7 comments

I am in Bangladesh. This is not an uprising, or atleast not according to my definition of an uprising. If you consider what happened in Egypt or middle east in general as an uprising then this is not the same as whats happening in dhaka.

This so-called uprising is NOT against the government. There is good reason to believe part of it is instigated by the government and indirectly controlled by them.

While not a farce, or without any reason, I thing this is pointless because I thing there are some valid reasons to have neutral uprising against the corrupted government and the political parties. This is not it. Unfortunately.

The funniest part is even with all these corruption Bangladesh is going through one of most amazing period of economic growth in its history, in many cases surpassing even its powerful neighbors. If only they could curb corruption, BD can be an economic powerhouse in the region.

Hello,

'Bangladeshi' here. Thanks for putting your thoughts together, however I have some points to make.

It's true that this movement is not against the corrupted government. But to say that this is 'instigated by the government and indirectly controlled by them' is nowhere near the truth. This was started solely by the students, who has had enough of all the wrong things happening(including the corruption). Several, government officials were denied the chance to speak at the movement, when they tried to give this movement a political brand and use it to their advantage. The people were angry and the politicians took off after several minutes(I was there).

What started at Shabag, has now spread throughout the country. I just spoke to my dad, who live in a small town far away from the capital, says the movement has reached there too. Its all over the news.

The youth of Bangladesh are tired of all the lies and cheating they had and this time they are on the street. Frankly speaking, even I could never imagine that people would ever rise up and protest. This is how it begins and eventually this will lead to corruption and other things that are stopping BD to what it can be.

I hope this movement turns in to something substantial. But I have reasons to be cynical.

Text copied from ICSF: "On 5 February 2013, International Crimes Tribunal-2 delivered judgment against Kader Molla, who was accused of rape of minor and at least 350 murders. Tried for his crimes against humanity, his crimes were proven beyond reasonable doubt, according to the judgment. However, the Tribunal comprising of Mr Shahinur Islam, Obaidul Hasan Shahin and Mojibur Rahman awarded Kader Molla life sentence, instead of death penalty which the accused deserved. People, rejecting this lenient sentence, has risen, in Dhaka and other cities in Bangladesh."

BBC coverage here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-21383632

BBC changed many inaccuracies, including a change in the article title, after people pointed them out on social media.

It'd be a huge blow to the rule of law to give someone the death penalty based on public pressure -- no matter how horrific his crimes.

Indeed, the rule of law should be held above the rule of man (mob rule). The chorus however is incendiary and volatile, "Justice delayed is justice denied."

The situation is tense to say the least.

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