Protesters continue to demand execution of Islamist leader in Bangladesh

Protesters continue to gather in Dhaka to demand the execution of Islamist opposition leader Abdul Quader Mollah.

Abdul Quader Mollah, who has been declared guilty of war crimes committed during the 1971 war of independence from Pakistan, was due to be hanged at the Dhaka Central Jail just after midnight on Wednesday, but his lawyers earned a last minute reprieve.

Lawyers met at the Supreme Court's appeals division and are likely to resume arguments on Thursday. The stay on execution remains until the appeal against the death penalty is resolved.

"We demand that Islamist opposition leader, Abdul Quader Mollah should be hanged. Earlier, we got the order of his hanging through our demonstrations and we were expecting that he would be hanged. But it did not happen. So, we are again demanding Mollah's hanging. Otherwise, our demonstrations are of no use. We want that Mollah should be hanged immediately," said a protester, Dipa.

Mollah is assistant secretary general of the Jamaat-e-Islami party, which is barred from contesting elections but plays a key role in the opposition movement led by the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP).

He is one of five Islamist leaders condemned to death by Bangladesh's International Crimes Tribunal (ICT), set up in 2010 to investigate atrocities perpetrated during the 1971 conflict, in which three million people died.

Critics of the ICT say it has been used as a political tool by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who is locked in a long and poisonous feud with BNP leader Begum Khaleda Zia, as a way of weakening the opposition as January 05 elections are nearing.

But many Bangladeshis support the court, believing that those convicted of war crimes should be punished, underlining how the events of 42 years ago still resonate in an impoverished nation of 160 million deeply divided over the role for Islam.