Jamaat calls for strike in Bangladesh over leader's death

Bangladesh's Jamaat-e-Islami party has called for a nationwide dawn-to-dusk general strike Sunday in protest of the execution of its leader Abdul Quader Mollah.

The announcement to observe the general strike, a day before Bangladesh celebrates the Victory Day, Dec 16, was made minutes after Mollah, the party's assistant secretary general, was hanged Thursday night, bdnews24.com reported.

"The government has killed Mollah in a planned way ignoring calls from international community and the people of Bangladesh," acting head of Jamaat Maqbul Hossain said in a statement on party's website.

Earlier in the day, after the Supreme Court rejected Mollah's petition to review his death sentence, the party in another statement had said: "Awami League will have to pay for each drop of Abdul Quader Mollah's blood."

He had refused to seek presidential clemency following the Supreme Court's rejection of a review petition of his death sentence Thursday.

Mollah, who was hanged at 10.01 p.m., was the first person convicted for crimes against humanity committed during the 1971 war of independence to walk to the gallows after being sentenced to death. His hanging came three days before the country celebrates the 42nd Victory Day, which commemorates Bangladesh's triumph in the nine-month bloody war against the Pakistani occupation forces in 1971.

He was buried at his ancestral home in Faridpur's Sadar Upazila at the family graveyard at Amirabad village around 4.20 a.m. Friday after funeral prayers, said district magistrate Mohd. Mamun Shiblee, who supervised the burial.