Shahbag Movement: The Audacity of Youth

Starting with the audacity of youth, Shahbag Movement (the Movement) is nothing but the outburst of a long-pending dissatisfaction of the people of a country for fair trial against war-crimes. The Movement is not for revenge, and it is not against any particular religious-believe. The Movement is to confirm the justice for the crimes against humanity which has been delayed for more than four decades. The Movement is to bring-back the spirit of 1971 war of independence. The Movement is to re-write the history of Bangladesh.

The demand of Shahbag Movement is very clear and simple - ‘ensure capital punishment for the war-criminals of 1971’. At the same time, ‘the war-criminals should not be allowed to be organized with political, financial or social establishments’. And the ‘people’ of the country has endorsed the demands.

The Movement is not going to say how the demands will be full-filled, but it has already established the points. Now, it is the responsibility of the representative of the ‘people’ or the ‘law-makers’ to fulfill the expectations; they have to figure-out the solutions to the loopholes of the whole judiciary and other relevant systems. Let us remember again that ‘law’ is for ‘people’, and it is the ‘people’ who has the right to change the ‘law’. The ‘law’ of any land should reflect the expectations of the ‘people’.

Yes, the Movement is not merciful to war-criminals. But, this is not against human-right. Rather, it is upholding the international human-right by ensuring fair trial for the crimes against humanity. Therefore, it could be said without any hesitation that ‘Shahbag protesters are more humanitarian than the so called human-right activists in the west and east who are trying to portray the Shahbag Movement as fascist’.

The Movement should not be distracted with all of the noise around it. Those, who are deliberately supporting the war-criminals for many different reasons, will continue to raise many tricky issues. But, ‘the main thing is to keep the main thing as the main thing’. And the main thing for the Movement is the demand of ‘ensuring capital punishment for the war-criminals’. As long as the ‘people’ is with the Movement, and ‘youth’ is leading it, no evil power can destroy the spirit of it.

Time will say what would be the final outcome of the movement. However, the best achievement has already been attained – the YOUTH of the country has showed their AUDACITY to stand against injustice. With this great achievement, the nation will be on the right track at least for the next few decades.

Solidarity to Shahbag Movement! Salute to the youth for their audacity to stand for justice! Salute to the ‘people’ of the previous generations who have contributed for decades by keeping the spirit of liberation war alive by sharing true stories, hope and believes to the new generation. And finally salute to the all ‘human-being’ in home and abroad who are supporting the Movement in any form.

Let us all wish and hope that those, who are still not sure about the Movement, will be enlightened enough to realize the major shift in the history of Bangladesh – they will be beside the truth and justice.