The countrywide 24-hour hartal, called by Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami protesting the verdict of the Supreme Court (SC) that upheld the death penalty of war criminal Jamaat leader Ali Ahsan Muhammad Mojaheed, is underway peacefully on Wednesday.

The International Crimes Tribunal-2 had earlier awarded the death sentence.

The shutdown that began at 6:00am on Wednesday will end at 6:00am on Thursday.

No procession or picketing was seen in support of the hartal in the city.

Presence of motorised vehicles was almost normal on the capital streets.

A large number of law enforcers remained deployed in different parts of the capital to fend off any trouble.

Earlier on Tuesday, Makbul Ahmad, acting ameer of Jamaat-e-Islami, announced the 24-hour strike for today on its website in protest
against the death sentence of its secretary general Ali Ahsan Muhammad Mojaheed for killing intellectuals during the Liberation War
in 1971.

The SC on Tuesday upheld the death penalty of war criminal Jamaat leader Mojaheed.

A four-member bench of the Appellate Division, led by Chief Justice SK Sinha, delivered the short order of the verdict in a crowded
courtroom amid tight security in and around the apex court.

The other judges of the bench were Justice Najmun Ara Sultana, Justice Syed Mahmud Hossain and Justice Hasan Foyez Siddique.

However, the court commuted his death penalty to life term imprisonment for murder and torture of minority community Hindus in
Bakchar village of Faridpur in 1971.

The SC upheld his five years’ imprisonment for confining and torturing Ranjit Nath during the war.

The appellate division also acquitted the Jamaat secretary general from the charge of abducting and killing noted journalist of the
daily Ittefaq Sirajuddin Hossain during the war.

The International Crimes Tribunal-2 on July 17, 2013, awarded Ali Ahsan Muhammad Mojaheed death penalty for committing crimes against humanity during the Liberation War in collaboration with the Pakistan occupation forces, after finding the Al Badar boss guilty of five, out of seven, charges.

The charges included murder of intellectuals, genocide, abduction and persecution.

On August 11, 2013, condemned prisoner Mojaheed filed an appeal with the Appellate Division against his capital punishment in the case for crimes against humanity during the 1971 Liberation War.

UNB/LY