Pavel Rahman/Associated Press
Mourners in Bangladesh on Saturday carried the coffin containing the body of Rajib Haider, an organizer who was killed.
DHAKA, Bangladesh (Reuters) — More than 100,000 protesters, angered by the killing of one of their organizers, poured back into the streets of the capital on Saturday to demand the death penalty for those found guilty of war crimes in Bangladesh’s 1971 independence conflict.
The demonstrators, who say that the life sentence given to an Islamist leader involved in the war is too lenient, reversed a decision to scale back their protests, now in their 12th day.
On Friday night, one of the protests’ organizers, Rajib Haider, an architect and blogger, was stabbed to death outside his home.
Mr. Haider’s family members said they believed he was killed for standing up to the country’s largest Islamist party, Jamaat-e-Islami, and drawing people to the protests. The police said they had detained five suspects.
“Haider’s death has rekindled our spirits,” said Nasiruddin Yusuf, a filmmaker. “It will not go in vain.”
A huge crowd gathered Saturday in Dhaka, the capital, for the Mr. Haider’s funeral. Many people vowed to avenge Mr. Haider’s death, and others broke down in tears as his coffin passed.
Large protests were also reported in other cities. Security forces patrolled the streets in much greater numbers than in previous days.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina visited Mr. Haider’s home and told his grieving parents that justice would be done.
“Rajib Haider’s killers have no right to do politics,” she said in comments broadcast live on television. She said Jamaat and its affiliates “do not believe in democracy.”
“They believe in terrorism,” she said. “That is what they are proving again.”
The protests were set off by the life sentence imposed on Abdul Quader Mollah, an official of Jamaat-e-Islami, on Feb. 5. Most Bangladeshis had expected a death sentence for Mr. Mollah, who was charged with murder, rape and torture during the 1971 war.
Bangladesh became part of Pakistan at the end of British rule in 1947 but broke away in 1971 after a war between Bangladeshi nationalists, backed by India, and Pakistani forces. Three million people died, and thousands of women were raped.
Protest leaders have vowed to continue their demonstrations until Mr. Mollah, 64, is sentenced to death, along with others convicted of committing crimes during the war.
The opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party says the prime minister is using the war crimes tribunal, set up in 2010, as a political weapon. Ms. Hasina denies the accusation.
Vast Throng in Bangladesh Protests Killing of Activist
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Vast Throng in Bangladesh Protests Killing of Activist
